REHNQUIST SAYS CONGRESS CREATING TOO MANY FEDERAL CRIMES

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

Last year, the number of new criminal cases in the federal judiciary rose
by 15 percent, he said, the largest increase in nearly three decades. The
rise was propelled mostly by drug and immigration cases, he added.

Whether controlled by Democrats or Republicans, Congress has regularly
created new federal crimes over the past two decades.

Amid the "war on drugs" of the 1980s, Congress authorized federal
prosecutors to go after drug dealers and "drug kingpins." Next came
carjackers, arsonists and those who flee their duty to pay child support.
Recently, House Republicans have been pushing to make various juvenile
offenses into federal crimes.

The chief justice, adhering to the old-fashioned view, said the federal
courts should be reserved for truly national matters.

"The trend to federalize crimes . . . threatens to change entirely the
nature of our federal system," Rehnquist said. "Federal courts were not
created to adjudicate local crimes, no matter how sensational or heinous
the crimes may be. State courts do, can and should handle such problems."

At the Supreme Court, Rehnquist has pressed the same theme during his 26-
year career.

In death penalty cases, he has repeatedly called for a more hands-off
approach by federal judges. When federal judges in California act to block
the state from imposing a death sentence, Rehnquist can be counted upon to
vote in favor of returning the matter to state officials.

He also persuaded Congress in 1996 to change federal law to make it harder
for state death row inmates to have their cases reviewed by federal judges.

His interventions have not been limited to capital punishment, however. In
1995, the chief justice, speaking for a 5-4 majority, struck down as
unconstitutional the Gun-Free School Zones Act, which made it a federal
crime to possess a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school. The state of
Texas already had such laws and other states could pass them, Rehnquist
said in his opinion, and Congress had no authority to make such offenses
federal crimes.

In his year-end report, he urged the House Judiciary Committee to hold
hearings to set general standards for when crimes should be federalized.

Rehnquist suggested that federal jurisdiction be limited to crimes that
cross state lines or those involving "high-level state or local government
corruption," which cannot be entrusted to state courts. A threshold
consideration for creating a new federal crime is a "demonstrated state
failure" to handle the matter, he said.

Rehnquist also faulted the White House and Congress for failing to appoint
new members to the U.S. Sentencing Commission and for allowing judicial
salaries to stagnate. For the fifth time in six years, judges have been
denied a cost-of-living raise. As a result, the annual pay for U.S. judges
has declined by 16 percent since 1993 when inflation is taken into account,
he said.

The seven-member sentencing commission is supposed to review and adjust the
punishments for federal crimes, but the administration and Congress have
not acted on new nominees.