Michigan Pronouns Law 'Probably Is Unconstitutional'
gender identity—for example, by deliberately misgendering them—has sparked a controversy over whether the proposed law violates the First Amendment.The measure, House Bill 4474, is included in a package of legislation that would replace Michigan's existing Ethnic Intimidation Act.
It would expand the existing law to cover sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or expression, and physical or mental disability.Religion, ethnicity and race were already included in the previous legislation and will still be covered under the new law.
The bill would make it a hate crime to cause someone to "feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened" with words—including by deliberately misgendering them.The bill was criticized by some on the political right due to the focus on the gender identity part of the bill, which is only a fraction of what the legislation would cover.
Former judge and television personality Joe Brown called the law an "abomination," saying on Twitter that it was "so obscenely contrary to American 1st A[mendment] Law."But is the bill, as critics claim, likely to be unconstitutional?"The bill reaches the use of force or intimidation 'based on' any of a number of characteristics, and gender expression is one of them, but I would take this to mean that this language simply brings within the statute acts of violence or intimidation undertaken because the perpetrator perceives the victim as a member of a group he or she hates, including hatred of transgender individuals," James Gardner, a constitutional law professor at the University of Buffalo, told Newsweek."The act limits the punishment of 'harassment' to acts that would cause terror in a reasonable person.
