Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 9, 1994 TAG: 9411090062
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Gun-related violence at schools harms the national economy, the Clinton administration argued Tuesday in urging the Supreme Court to reinstate a federal ban on possession of guns within 1,000 feet of schools.
``This is not about just regulating guns,'' Solicitor General Drew Days told the court. ``Congress is concerned with this impact on the national economy'' and properly enacted the law under its power to regulate interstate commerce, he said.
But the lawyer for a former Texas high school student convicted of taking a gun to school argued that Congress overstepped its authority when it enacted the 1990 Gun-Free School Zones Act. Congress did not properly outline a connection between gun possession and interstate commerce, said attorney John R. Carter.
More than 200,000 children carry firearms to school every day, according to Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., sponsor of the 1990 school gun law.
Congress has recognized a connection between gun possession and violence, Days said. Gun-related violence at school makes it difficult for schools to function, raises their insurance rates and makes people less willing to move to some violence-prone areas, he added.
But Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Antonin Scalia expressed doubts that possessing a gun near a school involves interstate commerce.
And Days acknowledged that his argument would leave no real limit on Congress' authority to pass criminal laws involving individual conduct that affects interstate commerce.
``Is there any violent crime that doesn't affect interstate commerce under your rationale?'' asked Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Later, when Ginsburg again asked Days for an example of a law that Congress would lack authority to enact, Scalia interjected, ``Don't give away anything here. They might want to do it.''
The case involves the March 1992 arrest of Alfonso Lopez Jr., who was a senior at a San Antonio High School when he was arrested for bringing a .38-caliber handgun and five bullets to school.
In addition to hearing arguments on the gun law, the court:
Heard the Clinton administration's bid to revive a federal law that bars federal employees from being paid for speeches or articles unrelated to their government work. Lower courts threw out the law as an unconstitutional infringement of free speech.
Ruled unanimously that people who reach settlements in federal lawsuits during the appeal process generally forfeit the right to have the lower court's judgment set aside.
by CNB