Bill > HB306

This bill enacts the Hate Crime Act, which establishes comprehensive legal protections against terrorizing or intimidating individuals based on their personal characteristics or beliefs. The legislation creates new definitions and civil and criminal penalties for actions intended to threaten or intimidate people because of their political affiliation, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, familial status, military status, disability, or position in a labor dispute. The bill provides a civil remedy allowing individuals who are terrorized to bring legal action against perpetrators, with potential outcomes including actual damages, punitive damages, and civil fines up to $25,000. It also allows the attorney general or county prosecutor to investigate and potentially prosecute such cases. The bill carefully distinguishes between protected speech and actionable threats, specifying that speech alone does not constitute a violation unless it meets specific criteria, such as directly threatening violence against a specific person or group, causing reasonable fear of violence, and being made with reckless disregard. Additionally, the legislation prohibits requiring individuals to waive these protections as a condition of receiving goods or services and repeals the existing ethnic intimidation statute, replacing it with a more comprehensive hate crime framework that increases penalties for offenses motivated by bias against protected characteristics.

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https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/136/hb306