The motto “Equal Justice Under Law” is inscribed above the grand entrance to the Supreme Court. Presumably these words are intended to describe what goes on inside. If the hate crimes bill adopted by the House yesterday becomes law, however, something very different will be going on.

Few people doubt that truly hideous crimes, like the murder of James Byrd (a black man chained by three white thugs to the back of a pickup truck and dragged through the streets until he died) deserve severe punishment. To me, that means the death penalty — and at least one of Byrd’s killers got exactly […]