REHNQUIST RIPS CONGRESS FOR NEGLECTING U.S. COURTS CHIEF JUSTICE NOTES
'RISING CASELOAD'

Days before he is to start presiding over the Senate impeachment case
against the president, Chief Justice William Rehnquist blamed Congress for
neglecting serious problems in the federal courts.

He faulted Congress for contributing to a dramatic increase in federal
criminal cases and 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 declared 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 declared.

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 harsher than under similar state
laws.

Nationwide, the chief justice said, 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 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.

Vacancies have long plagued the bipartisan commission. Last year it
operated with only four commissioners until October, when three members'
terms expired and the chairman resigned.

The Clinton administration and key Senate leaders of both parties have
bickered for months over replacement candidates.

"With criminal cases in federal courts reaching historic levels, the
judiciary needs a fully functioning Sentencing Commission. . . . The
president and the Senate should give this situation their immediate
attention," declared Rehnquist, who became chief justice in 1986.

Congress, he said, has also failed to provide adequate pay for attorneys
appointed to represent criminal defendants who are too poor to hire their
own lawyers.

That lapse is "seriously hampering the ability of judges to recruit
attorneys to provide effective representation," the chief justice said.

In most federal districts, court-appointed lawyers are paid $65 an hour for
work in court and $45 an hour for out-of-court work. Rehnquist wants the
rate to be raised uniformly to $75 an hour.