Florida Man’s Convictions for Racist Hate Crime Upheld on Appeal

A White man who terrorized and endangered a Black family traveling on a county road in Florida lost an appeal to undo his hate-crime convictions.

Jordan Leahy asked the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to hold the statute he was convicted under unconstitutional, claiming Congress exceeded its authority under the 13th Amendment when it passed the law.

“We won’t do that,” Judge Robin S. Rosenbaum said Thursday, joined by Judges Kevin C. Newsom and Nancy G. Abudu.

The statute Leahy challenged, which prohibits race-based violence that interferes with federally protected activities, “falls well within Congress’s authority under ...