JUSTICE REHNQUIST WANTS MORE CONTROL IN STATE COURTS

WASHINGTON - Demanding a fundamental change in the nation's
crime-fighting strategy, Chief Justice William Rehnquist Thursday
called on Congress to halt the politically popular practice of
enacting federal laws against an ever-greater number of crimes once
handled in state courts.

"The trend to federalize crimes that traditionally have been handled
in state courts... threatens to change entirely the nature of our
federal system," Rehnquist said in his year-end report on the federal
judiciary.

The chief justice was unusually blunt in questioning the motives
behind recently enacted statutes that have made federal crimes out of
misdeeds ranging from carjackings to failure to pay child support.
And while Rehnquist has occasionally expressed concern about the
growing jurisdiction of the federal courts, his new report is by far
the most explicit and represents his first formal complaint to
Congress on behalf of the federal judiciary. As a result, legislators
and others who follow the courts said it appears certain to frame
legislative debate in the coming year.

This past year alone, the number of criminal case filings in federal
courts jumped 15 percent to 57,691 cases, the biggest increase in 26
years and one that came on top of steady growth in prior years.

Rehnquist put the blame squarely on Capitol Hill, saying, "Congress
has contributed significantly to the rising caseload by continuing to
federalize crimes already covered by state laws."

"The pressure in Congress to appear responsive to every highly
publicized societal ill or sensational crime" needs to be balanced
against a determination of whether the job can be left to the states,
Rehnquist said, admonishing Congress to consider "whether we want most
of our legal relationships decided at the national rather than the
local level" the next time it feels such pressure.

Besides carjackings and child support, other legislation has increased
the federal government's jurisdiction in the areas of civil rights,
drug trafficking and terrorism.

Not all the laws that federalize crimes start in Congress, however.
President Clinton, for example, launched an initiative on child abuse
this week that featured a proposal to toughen federal homicide laws to
include the death of a child resulting from a pattern of abuse and to
encourage states to take a similar course.