We write in support of S. 1233, the Product Packaging Protection Act of 2001, legislation you have introduced along with Senators Hatch, Leahy, DeWine and Durbin.

The Anti-Defamation League is a civil rights and human relations agency with over 80 years of experience confronting extremist and hate group activity. We have supported similar consumer protection legislation in California, because we believe there should be consequences for this kind of product tampering by extremists and hate-mongers.

We strongly believe the proposed legislation raises no First Amendment issues. The First Amendment does not give individuals the right to hijack people's property for use as a vehicle for their own opinions. The Constitution does not require citizens to be subjected to read racist and anti-Semitic materials in their own homes against their will. As an organization, ADL is firmly committed to the idea that the best way to fight hate speech is with more speech. That does not mean, however, that we believe that this kind of vandalism should be countenanced under the banner of free speech.

We urge the Committee to act favorably on this legislation.