Thatcher Memorial (SJM1)
Oregon Legislative Concept (LC) 2984 has become Senate Joint Memorial (SJM) 1!
The draft Oregon Legislative Memorial urging Congress to conduct public hearings on anti-military bias and improve enforcement of hate crimes protections for military families, was introduced by Senator Kim Thatcher and is now looking for Legislative sponsors.
Click HERE if you live in Oregon to find your legislator and ask them to support our nation’s first Military Civil Rights Act. Here is the link to follow SJM1 as it progresses through Oregon’s legislative process; https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2025R1/Measures/Overview/SJM1. Scroll down for the text of Senate Joint Memorial (SJM) 1.
Senate Joint Memorial 1
Printed pursuant to Senate Interim Rule 213.28 by order of the President of the Senate in conformance with pre-session filing rules, indicating neither advocacy nor opposition on the part of the President (at the request of Senate Interim Committee on Veterans, Emergency Management, Federal and World Affairs)
SUMMARY
The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject to consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor’s brief statement of the essential features of the measure as introduced. The statement includes a measure digest written in compliance with applicable readability standards.
Digest: Urges Congress to protect rights of armed forces and their families. (Flesch Readability Score: 72.6).
Urges Congress to conduct public hearings on anti-military bias and improve enforcement of hate-crime protections for military families.
JOINT MEMORIAL
To the President of the United States and the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled:
We, your memorialists, the Eighty-third Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent as follows:
Whereas the State of Oregon is obligated to “ensure the human dignity of all people within this state and protect their health, safety and morals from the consequences of intergroup hostility, tensions and practices of unlawful discrimination of any kind” (ORS 659A.003); and
Whereas Americans are entitled under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to “equal protection of the laws” of our nation; and
Whereas section 4712 of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, known as the Soldiers Amendment (18 U.S.C. 1389), includes protections for military families; and
Whereas a hate or bias crime likely occurred in Oregon when American Legion Post 10 in Albany was burned to the ground on July 4, 2010; and
Whereas the United States Department of Justice has chosen not to charge multiple domestic terrorists for hate crimes under 18 U.S.C. 1389; and
Whereas criminal enhancements for hate crimes are necessary because a crime motivated by bias “devastates not just the actual victim and the family and friends of the victim, but frequently savages the community sharing the traits that caused the victim to be selected” (34 U.S.C. 30501); and
Whereas military families, by their sacrifice of blood, sweat and tears, secure American rights and freedoms while being at elevated risk of suicide; and
Whereas hate crimes against military families cannot be deterred without public awareness of the anti-military bias motivating them; and
Whereas failing to enforce 18 U.S.C. 1389 deprives military families of their civil rights; and
Whereas the United States Department of Justice has previously ignored a Congressional inquiry from Representative David Trone of Maryland on this matter; and
Whereas Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon sent a Congressional inquiry to United States Attorney General Merrick Garland on this matter on October 4, 2024, but to date no action has been taken in response to that inquiry; and
Whereas Oregon law enforcement agencies cannot meaningfully fulfill their statutory obligations without federal guidance and support, which the United States Department of Justice has not provided regarding 18 U.S.C. 1389; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon:
That we, the members of the Eighty-third Legislative Assembly, respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to conduct public hearings on anti-military bias and improve enforcement of hate-crime protections for military families; and be it further
Resolved, That a copy of this memorial shall be sent to the President of the United States, the Senate Majority Leader, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and each member of the Oregon Congressional Delegation.
