This is an excerpt from information supplied to me by Robert Plotkin. It should be noted that the case which held the MCRA provides speech rights was Abromowitz vs. B.U. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Massachusetts Civil Rights Act From the Annotated laws of Massachusetts, General Laws Section 11H. Impairment of Civil Rights; Action by Attorney General. Whenever any person or persons, whether or not acting under color of law, interfere by threats, intimidation or coercion, or attempt to interfere by threats, intimidation or coercion, with the exercise or enjoyment by any other person or persons of rights secured by the constitution or laws of the United States, or of rights secured by the constitution or laws of the commonwealth, the attorney general may bring a civil action for injunctive or other appropriate equitable relief in order to protect the peaceable exercise or enjoyment of the right or rights secured. Said civil action shall be brought in the name of the commonwealth and shall be instituted either in the superior court for the county in which the conduct complained of occurred or in the superior court for the county in which the person whose conduct complained of resides or has his principal place of business. (1979, 801, $1; 1982, 634, $4.) Section 11I. Impairment of Civil Rights; Private Remedy Any person whose exercise or enjoyment of rights secured by the constitution or laws of the United States, or of rights secured by the constitution or laws of the commonwealth, has been interfered with, or attempted to be interfered with, as described in section 11H, may institute and prosecute in his own name and on his own behalf a civil action for injunctive and other appropriate equitable relief as provided for in said section, including the award of compensatory money damages. Any aggrieved person or persons who prevail in an action authorized by this section shall be entitled to an award of the costs of the litigation and reasonable attorneys' fees in an amount to be fixed by the court. (1979, 801, $1.) The MCRA was enacted in 1979 "in response to the dramatic upsurge of racial violence in Boston during the previous decade." Attorney General Francis X. Bellotti said in 1981 that the MCRA "was drafted and enacted because many of us believed that the enforcement of existing laws was not enough to address the problems of racial and religious violence. ... It is one more tool that can be used to deal with problems of racial and religious violence." Indeed, both the criminal and civil provisions of the MCRA have frequently and successfully been invoked in cases of harassment and violence directed against minority victims. The MCRA was, however, drafted with broad language "that in no way limits its use to deprivation of constitutional or statutory rights on the basis of race, religion, or national origin." Over the past decade the MCRA has been used to protect the rights of citizens in cases that did not involve racial or religious violence, discrimination, or harassment.[66]