{"id":247800,"date":"2026-06-23T09:51:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=247800"},"modified":"2026-06-23T09:53:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:53:44","slug":"uconn-law-professor-helps-overhaul-connecticuts-hate-crime-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/06\/uconn-law-professor-helps-overhaul-connecticuts-hate-crime-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Law Professor Helps Overhaul Connecticut\u2019s Hate Crime Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Three
(l-r) Professor Sachin Pandya; Amy Lin Meyerson ’94, co-chair of the Connecticut Hate Crimes Advisory Council; Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

UConn Law Professor Sachin S. Pandya helped shape Connecticut\u2019s new hate crime law,<\/a> signed by Governor Ned Lamont<\/a> on June 8.<\/p>\n

Pandya helped draft the model bill that formed the basis of the legislation, which consolidates and revises the state\u2019s hate crime laws. Over time, those laws had become difficult to find, inconsistent in their requirements and who they protected, and harder to enforce.<\/p>\n

Working with Connecticut\u2019s Hate Crimes Advisory Council,<\/a> Pandya and then-UConn Law Professor Richard Wilson gathered input from prosecutors, defense attorneys, civil rights lawyers, and others to refine the proposal, which the Council then recommended to lawmakers. \u00a0Pandya then advised the Governor\u2019s office and testified before the Judiciary Committee on two bills based on that proposal.<\/p>\n

In announcing the legislation\u2019s passage, the Council highlighted UConn Law\u2019s role.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are grateful for the support of the University of Connecticut School of Law, Professors Sachin Pandya and Richard Wilson \u2026 who helped foster this collaborative achievement that exemplifies the finest traditions of legal academy in service to the public good, directly contributing to a safer, more inclusive, and more just Connecticut,\u201d said Amy Lin Meyerson \u201994, co-chairperson of the Council.<\/p>\n

Pandya spoke at the signing ceremony<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis law is just a first step,\u201d he said. \u201cThe law on the books is still far from perfect. And if it takes a village to make a good law, it takes even a bigger village\u2014a whole state even\u2014to make that law work for real. It takes . . . everyone working together to make clear that threats and violence, big or small, motivated by someone\u2019s race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or [an]other socially protected category — they\u2019re not just wrong. They\u2019re crimes. They\u2019re hate crimes. And we will not tolerate that here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legislation is part of a broader effort to detect, deter, and address hate crimes and bias incidents in Connecticut. Alongside the new law, the Council has launched a statewide reporting campaign supported by UConn\u2019s Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy<\/a>, including an online tool<\/a> (reporthate.ct.gov) designed to make it easier for individuals to report bias incidents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sachin Pandya played a key role in developing new legislation that streamlines and strengthens the state\u2019s hate crime laws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":247813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1715,1857],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2651],"class_list":["post-247800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-impact","category-law"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-30 18:15:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247800"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247830,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247800\/revisions\/247830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/247813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247800"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=247800"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=247800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}