U.S. JUDGES BRISTLE AS FEDERAL LAWS RISE

TAMPA - Is Congress putting too many crimes within the
power of the federal courts? Some ranking judges and
lawyers think so.

After years of failing to collect child support from former Tampa Bay
Buccaneers linebacker Hugh Green, authorities tried a new approach:
They turned to a federal grand jury.

Now Green, once a free spender with a lavish lifestyle, is facing the
possibility of up to six months in prison.

The get-tough approach was the result of a law passed by Congress in
1992 allowing federal prosecutors to pursue deadbeat parents who don't
live in the same state as their children.

Child support activists say the federal statute offers parents like
Theresa Webb, mother to two of Green's children, much-needed hope.

But others aren't so sure.

In recent months, high-ranking judges and lawyers have criticized what
they see as a disturbing trend. More and more, they say, Congress is
making a federal case out of crimes that were once left to state courts.

Delinquent parents aren't the only ones feeling the pressure. The same
year that law passed, Congress also set its sights on carjackers and
animal activists.

The three laws, combined with dozens of others enacted in past
decades, provide proof that federalization is on the rise, and critics
warn of dangerous consequences.

``The trend ... not only is taxing the judiciary's resources and
affecting its budget needs, but it also threatens to change entirely
the nature of our federal system,`` Chief Justice William Rehnquist
said in his year-end report on the status of federal courts.

To a large extent, the debate is a practical one. The number of
federal criminal cases rose last year by 15 percent, reaching 57,691.
That's nearly three times the increase in 1997.

``Not since 1972 have the criminal filings risen by double digits,''
Rehnquist said.

The judiciary's resources have not kept pace with the growth. Judges
in the Middle District of Florida, for example, consistently carry
some of the country's highest caseloads. But the district has not been
allocated a new judgeship in eight years.

To some extent, the debate is philosophical. Despite the new laws,
federal prosecutions still account for only 5 percent of the criminal
cases pursued nationwide, says an American Bar Association task force.

Nonetheless, the task force, which was headed by former Attorney
General Edwin Meese, concurred with Rehnquist's conclusions. In a
report released last month, the group rooted many of its arguments in
longstanding principles of limited federal power.

``State governments are neither incapable nor unwilling to exercise
their traditional responsibility to protect the lives and property of
citizens,'' the report said. ``Congress ought to reflect long and hard
before it enacts legislation which puts federal police in competition
with the states for the confidence of its citizenry and limited law
enforcement resources.''

As a former judge, U.S. Attorney Charles Wilson understands that
perspective. But he says the new laws give his office, which handles
prosecutions in Tampa, Orlando, Fort Myers and Jacksonville, a
valuable range of options.

``It really is an advantage to a federal prosecutor to have as many
options as possible. I like having that discretion,'' he said.

Not every case brought to the U.S. Attorney's Office ends up as a
federal prosecution.

Between fiscal years 1993 and 1997, Wilson's office pursued criminal
charges in 15 percent of the child support complaints and 37 percent
of the carjacking complaints it reviewed, according to federal law
enforcement data collected by the Transactional Records Access
Clearinghouse, a nonprofit organization at Syracuse University. The
office did not receive any referrals under the Animal Enterprise
Protection Act, which makes it a federal offense to travel interstate
to disrupt zoos and circuses.

Although some cases were declined because of insufficient evidence or
jurisdiction problems, most were passed over because they were being
prosecuted by other agencies, the records show.

``We live in an era of law enforcement cooperation,'' Wilson
said.

In many instances, the decisions boil down to resources.

Wilson said his office typically declines to prosecute carjacking
cases that involve juveniles, for example, because state courts are
better equipped to handle minors.

In child support disputes, however, federal agencies sometimes have
more clout.

``We can get a hold of a deadbeat parent who crosses state lines much
easier than the state attorney can,'' Wilson said.

Rehnquist has asked the subcommittee on courts and intellectual
property of the House Judiciary Committee to conduct hearings on the
issue of federalization later this year.