If hate speech is legally protected, then is it constitutional to stack on additional punishment for hate crimes?
<p>Wikipedia, Hate speech in the United States:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&quot;In a Supreme Court case on the issue, Matal v. Tam (2017), the
justices unanimously reaffirmed that there is effectively no &quot;hate
speech&quot; exception to the free speech rights protected by the First
Amendment and that the U.S. government may not discriminate against
speech on the basis of the speaker’s viewpoint.&quot;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Then why is hate crime punished more severely than non-hate crimes?</p>
<p>There are laws that specifically state that if a crime is motivated by hate, then extra punishment should be added during sentencing.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes</a>
<a href="https://www.police.iastate.edu/hate-crimes/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.police.iastate.edu/hate-crimes/</a>
&quot;In Iowa, a hate crime is considered a “penalty enhancement,” which
means a person convicted of one of the above enumerated crimes would
receive a sentence one degree higher than it would be for the same
crime without a bias or hate component.&quot;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But if there is no such thing as &quot;hate speech&quot; in the eyes of the law, then how can &quot;hate crime&quot; exist as a separate category?</p>
<p>If the government is not allowed to define &quot;hate speech&quot;, then how can it define &quot;hate crime&quot;?</p>
<hr />
<p>I wish to expand on this further.
The supreme court has ruled that same sex marriage is a constitutional right.</p>
<p>So the government is not allowed to pass laws banning same sex marriage or sexual activity between two men. Got it.</p>
<p>But can the government pass a law saying that if someone is currently in a same sex marriage, and also charged with sexual abuse of a minor, then such a person shall &quot;receive a sentence one degree higher than it would be for the same crime committed by a heterosexual person&quot; ?</p>
<hr />
<p>The supreme court also ruled that access to abortion is a constitutional right (for now, at least).</p>
<p>But can the government pass a law saying that if someone is charged with say driving under the influence of alcohol, and also previously had an abortion, then such a person shall &quot;receive a sentence one degree higher than it would be for the same crime committed by a person who never had an abortion&quot; ?</p>

<p>The First Amendment says that &quot;Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech&quot;, so to the extent that such a definition serves to limit one's freedom of speech, it is unconstitutional. If would also be unconstitutional to reward &quot;love speech&quot; or any other viewpoint. Crimes, such as murder, arson, rape and so on, are not constitutionally protected. The government can therefore define various parameters of severity (various degrees of assault defined in terms of &quot;wantonness&quot;). Assault, arson and murder are not legal forms of &quot;expression&quot;, so assault motivated by a viewpoint is not &quot;protected speech&quot; – it isn't speech at all.</p>

united-states criminal-law sentencing