THE AHMAUD ARBERY KILLING IS APPARENTLY BEING INVESTIGATED AS A FEDERAL HATE CRIME:  I argued in a brief that the federal hate crime statute is (in part) unconstitutional.  Congress relied on the 13th Amendment, which bans slavery, as the basis for its authority to punish hate crimes based on race.   That is (I hope obviously) a bit of a stretch.

None of this is to say that the Arbery killing is or is not a hate crime as defined in the Act.  But the constitutional issue is interesting, and the Supreme Court hasn’t addressed it yet.  Maybe it will someday