Stop Hate Crimes Act of 2025

The Stop Hate Crimes Act of 2025 would amend the federal hate crimes statute (18 U.S.C. 249) to clarify how causation works in federal hate crime prosecutions. Specifically, the bill changes the language in two parts of the statute from a standard that a crime was caused “because of” a protected characteristic to a standard stating the protected characteristic “was a contributory motivating factor for causing or attempting to cause” the injury. In practical terms, this means a federal hate crime could be charged when bias related to race, color, religion, national origin (referred to in the bill as “origin of any person”) or disability was one contributing factor among possibly other motives. The bill was introduced in the House on June 26, 2025, by Representative Lieu and several co-sponsors and referred to the Judiciary Committee.