Cite as: 508 U. S. 476 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
Mitchell argues that the Wisconsin penalty-enhancement statute is invalid because it punishes the defendant's discriminatory motive, or reason, for acting. But motive plays the same role under the Wisconsin statute as it does under federal and state antidiscrimination laws, which we have previously upheld against constitutional challenge. See Roberts v. United States Jaycees, 468 U. S., at 628; Hishon v. King & Spalding, 467 U. S. 69, 78 (1984); Runyon v. Mc-Crary, 427 U. S. 160, 176 (1976). Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, for example, makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an employee "because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-2(a)(1) (emphasis added). In Hishon, we rejected the argument that Title VII infringed employers' First Amendment rights. And more recently, in R. A. V. v. St. Paul, 505 U. S., at 389-390, we cited Title VII (as well as 18 U. S. C. § 242 and 42 U. S. C. §§ 1981 and 1982) as an example of a permissible content-neutral regulation of conduct.
Nothing in our decision last Term in R. A. V. compels a different result here. That case involved a First Amendment challenge to a municipal ordinance prohibiting the use of " 'fighting words' that insult, or provoke violence, 'on the basis of race, color, creed, religion or gender.' " 505 U. S., at 391 (quoting St. Paul Bias-Motivated Crime Ordinance, St. Paul, Minn., Legis. Code § 292.02 (1990)). Because the ordinance only proscribed a class of "fighting words" deemed particularly offensive by the city—i. e., those "that contain . . . messages of 'bias-motivated' hatred," 505 U. S., at 392— we held that it violated the rule against content-based discrimination. See id., at 392-394. But whereas the ordinance struck down in R. A. V. was explicitly directed at expression (i. e., "speech" or "messages"), id., at 392, the statute in this case is aimed at conduct unprotected by the First Amendment.
Moreover, the Wisconsin statute singles out for enhancement bias-inspired conduct because this conduct is thought
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