Cite as: 538 U. S. 343 (2003)
Thomas, J., dissenting
nized, a century before Al Fatah declared its holy war on Israel, the Ku Klux Klan was actively harassing, torturing, and murdering in the United States. Today . . . its members remain fanatically committed to a course of violent opposition to social progress and racial equality in the United States." M. Newton & J. Newton, The Ku Klux Klan: An Encyclopedia vii (1991) (hereinafter Newton & Newton).
To me, the majority's brief history of the Ku Klux Klan only reinforces this common understanding of the Klan as a terrorist organization, which, in its endeavor to intimidate, or even eliminate those it dislikes, uses the most brutal of methods.
Such methods typically include cross burning—"a tool for the intimidation and harassment of racial minorities, Catholics, Jews, Communists, and any other groups hated by the Klan." Capitol Square Review and Advisory Bd. v. Pinette, 515 U. S. 753, 770 (1995) (Thomas, J., concurring). For those not easily frightened, cross burning has been followed by more extreme measures, such as beatings and murder. J. Williams, Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965, p. 39 (1987). As the Government points out, the association between acts of intimidating cross burning and violence is well documented in recent American history. Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 3-4, and n. 2.1
1 United States v. Guest, 383 U. S. 745, 747-748, n. 1 (1966) (quoting indictment charging conspiracy under 18 U. S. C. § 241 (1964 ed.) to interfere with federally secured rights by, inter alia, "burning crosses at night in public view," "shooting Negroes," "beating Negroes," "killing Negroes," "damaging and destroying property of Negroes," and "pursuing Negroes in automobiles and threatening them with guns"); United States v. Pospisil, 186 F. 3d 1023, 1027 (CA8 1999) (defendants burned a cross in victims' yard, slashed their tires, and fired guns), cert. denied, 529 U. S. 1089 (2000); United States v. Stewart, 65 F. 3d 918, 922 (CA11 1995) (cross burning precipitated an exchange of gunfire between victim and perpetrators), cert. denied sub nom. Daniel v. United States, 516 U. S. 1134 (1996); United States v. McDermott, 29 F. 3d 404, 405 (CA8 1994) (defendants
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