Racial Profiling Hearings Include Religious Profiling Concerns

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights held a hearing on "Ending Racial Profiling In America." The witness testimony (links to full text and webcast) also focused on profiling of Muslim Americans as an aspect of racial profiling.  The proposed End Racial Profiling Act (S. 1670) defines "racial profiling" as "the practice of a law enforcement agent or agency relying, to any degree, on race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion in selecting which individual to subject to routine or spontaneous investigatory activities". Thirty-four religious and advocacy groups-- secular organizations as well as ones representing various faiths-- also wrote the subcommittee "to highlight our objections to religious profiling, which may sometimes also be used as a proxy for race, ethnicity, or national origin." (Full text of letter.) An article in The Hill yesterday by the co-directors of the Brennan Center also focuses on religious profiling, pointing out that the 2003 Department of Justice guidelines on profiling cover racial and ethnic profiling, but not religious profiling. Also the guidelines do not cover national security and border security matters, nor do they cover state and local law enforcement.