Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 27, 1995                   TAG: 9504270084
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder Newspapers
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

COURT OVERTURNS SCHOOL GUN BAN, REINS IN CONGRESS

Congress exceeded its authority over interstate commerce when it enacted the law, declared the court's five most conservative members: Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.

In most communities, the ruling won't have any immediate practical impact. More than 40 states, including Virginia, already have outlawed the possession of firearms in or near school grounds. None of those state laws was affected by the high court ruling.

But in a broader sense, the decision was a milestone. It signaled a sharp conservative retreat from the court's longtime willingness to endorse the expanding power of Congress to regulate a vast array of activities - based on its constitutional power to control interstate commerce.

William Van Alstyne, a Duke University law professor and author of texts on constitutional law, said it was the first time in nearly 60 years that the Supreme Court had overturned an act of Congress that was based on its commerce power and had a direct effect on private activity.

The ruling placed a constitutional cloud over the authority of Congress to legislate in areas traditionally reserved to the states - especially education, local crime and such family law issues as marriage, divorce, child custody and adoption.

As such, it was a victory for state governments, gun owners and conservatives, who have long sought a halt to the growing commerce power of Congress.

In contrast, the decision disturbed Clinton administration officials, gun-control advocates, public school leaders, police organizations and others who favored the federal law that was declared unconstitutional.

The Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 made it a federal crime to possess a firearm within 1,000 feet of a public, private or parochial school.

In defending it as a proper exercise of the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce, the Clinton administration forcefully argued that gun-related violence in schools hinders learning to such a serious degree that it damages the American economy and its ability to compete in the world.

But that theory, Rehnquist wrote for the majority, could justify unfettered federal authority to legislate ``even in areas such as criminal law enforcement, or education, where states historically have been sovereign.''

``Thus, if we were to accept the government's arguments, we are hard-pressed to posit any activity by an individual that Congress is without power to regulate.''

To some legal experts, the ruling could spell trouble for some environmental laws that regulate individual conduct and for a recently enacted federal statute that makes it a crime to obstruct abortion clinics.

Justice Stephen Breyer, who led the court minority on the issue, predicted the decision would bring legal uncertainty to ``Congress' ability to enact criminal laws aimed at criminal behavior that ... seriously threatens the economic, as well as social, well-being of Americans.''

But Van Alstyne said Congress can evade most of the court ruling by relying, not on the commerce power, but on its court-approved authority to ``spend with strings attached.''

For example, he said, Congress could provide money to local schools only on condition that its state bars guns in or near schools and adequately punishes Violators.