REHNQUIST BLASTS CONGRESS FOR FEDERALIZING LOCAL CRIMES

WASHINGTON -- Chief Justice William Rehnquist, in his year-end report on
the judiciary, faulted Congress for turning local offenses into federal
crimes, a trend that he said has overburdened the U.S. courts.

He also faulted Congress for providing only substandard pay for court-
appointed criminal lawyers. And he specifically criticized both the Senate
and President Clinton for the lack of any members on the federal Sentencing
Commission.

Filings of new criminal cases rose 15 percent in 1998 -- nearly tripling
the increase in 1997, Rehnquist said in his annual report on the federal
court system. The report, released Friday, said 1998 was the first time in
26 years that criminal cases had increased by double-digit percentages.

"Congress has contributed significantly to the rising caseload by
continuing to federalize crimes already covered by state law," the chief
justice said.

Rehnquist did not mention his impending duty to preside over a Senate trial
for President Clinton, who has been impeached by the House.

He urged Congress to stop yielding to the pressure "to appear responsive to
every highly publicized societal ill or sensational crime. . . . Federal
courts were not created to adjudicate local crimes, no matter how
sensational or heinous the crimes may be."

Rehnquist, who has opposed federalization of state crimes in the past, said
that in recent years, Congress has extended federal jurisdiction to such
areas as carjacking, arson, child support and animal protection.

Offenses committed under these and other federal statutes may be prosecuted
in U.S. courts, where sentences often are longher than under similar state
laws.

Nationwide, the chief justice said, new federal immigration cases grew 40
percent in 1998, to become the second-largest category of federal criminal
cases. The top category, drug cases, rose 19 percent. The increases in
immigration and drug filings occurred mostly in U.S. courts along the
Southwestern border of the United States.

Rehnquist said he found it "stunning" that partisan political wrangling has
left the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which is supposed to have seven
members, with none at all. He blamed both the president and the Senate.

The lack of commissioners, he said, "is paralyzing a critical component of
the federal justice system."

"There currently are no commissioners . . . and no nominations are
pending," Rehnquist said.

The failure to fill the vacancies, he added, is especially incomprehensible
because Congress, in creating the commission in 1984, sought continuity and
fair representation by providing for bipartisan membership and staggered
six-year terms.

The commission's main purposes are to reduce sentencing disparities,
propose changes in sentencing guidelines to Congress and resolve conflicts
over sentencing in federal courts.

But without an active commission, there is no one to vote on
recommendations to reduce controversial disparities in cocaine sentencing
or on new sentencing guidelines ordered by Congress for crimes involving
pornography, telemarketing fraud, methamphetamines and intellectual
property violations.