Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act Signed

President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, expanding federal hate crime law to include sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability, and giving DOJ authority to prosecute racially motivated crimes without requiring a violation of a federally protected activity. Named partly for James Byrd Jr., the Black Texan man dragged to death in 1998, the law was a decade-long legislative victory for civil rights advocates.