CLEVELAND --




Twelve defendants charged in beard-cutting attacks on fellow Amish in Ohio are challenging the constitutionality of the federal hate crimes law.




University of Akron Law professor J. Dean Carro, who filed one of the challenges, said Monday that all the defendants would join the effort to overturn the law.




The challengers say the alleged attacks aren't religion-based hate crimes but internal church discipline not involving anti-Amish bias.




The government faces a Monday deadline to respond to the challenge, but asked a judge in Cleveland for an extension. Prosecutors didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.




A feud over church discipline allegedly led to attacks in which the beards and hair of men and hair of women were cut, an act that is considered deeply offensive to Amish.




In January, the defense for the breakaway Amish leader charged in the attacks on fellow Amish in Ohio said the government was trying to demonize him to keep him locked up pending trial.




The attorney for 66-year-old Samuel Mullet Sr. told a Cleveland federal judge that the government was trying to invoke the memory of a deadly 1993 Waco, Texas, standoff in opposing Mullet's release.




Federal prosecutors said Mullet is a risk to flee and poses a danger to the community.




Mullet and 11 followers have all pleaded not guilty.