MA H1920

Grants the Division of Civil Rights and Liberties authority to issue civil investigative demands requiring document production, written interrogatories, and oral testimony before filing civil actions

Allows victims of civil rights violations motivated by bias based on race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, immigration status, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability to receive up to $5,000 in statutory damages per violation plus punitive damages

Requires the crime reporting unit to collect hate crime data quarterly from all police departments, law enforcement agencies, and voluntarily from community groups, advocacy groups, and civil rights agencies

Mandates establishment of a central repository for hate crime data collection and analysis, with standardized reporting procedures including demographic information of offenders and protected characteristics of victims

Expands the criminal hate crime statute to include ethnicity, immigration status, gender, gender expression, and gender identity as protected categories, with penalties up to $5,000 fine and/or 2.5 years imprisonment