The Cincinnati Enquirer |
NEWS
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Dec. 9, 1998 |
| The city of Cincinnati can legally expand a hate-crime ordinance to include offenses committed against gays, lesbians and bisexuals because of their sexual orientation, according to a law department report issued Tuesday.
Councilman Todd Portune proposed the measure this fall after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a 1993 voter-approved charter amendment. The amendment prohibited the city from extending protection to people in such matters as housing and employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. According to the law department, Mr. Portune’s proposal does not violate the charter amendment, Issue 3. But the law department does not think Mr. Portune’s proposal to create the right for one to sue another for money damages will hold up under state laws. "A city’s power of self-government does not include the power to regulate the jurisdiction of the courts," the law department report says. |
A violation of the municipal ordinance could serve as the basis for a civil suit in state court between private parties, Mr. Portune said later Tuesday.
What remains unclear is whether Mr. Portune will be able to offer a measure to funnel punitive damages in a case not just to victims, but also to cover the cost of prosecution and efforts to eradicate bias. Mr. Portune wrote the city’s 1995 hate-crime law. Under that law, anyone committing assault, aggravated menacing, criminal damaging or endangering, criminal mischief or telephone harassment by reasons of the race, color, religion, or national origin are guilty of first-degree misdemeanors.
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