White Supremacist Loses Appeal of Hate Crime Assault Convictions

Congress had the authority under the 13th Amendment to adopt the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act, the First Circuit said, upholding the convictions of a White man involved in breaking the jaws of two Black men.

On April 15, 2018, Maurice Diggins and his nephew, who are White, approached two Black men in separate incidents, called them a racial slur, and hit them in the face. Both victims’ jaws were broken.

Diggins was convicted for the assaults under the Shepard-Byrd Act, which makes it a crime to willfully cause bodily injury to any person because ...