CHIEF JUSTICE IDENTIFIES CONGRESS AS SOURCE OF OVERWORKED JUDICIARY

Rehnquist says growth in caseload is spurred by new federal crimes

Los Angeles Times

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

Last year, the number of new crime 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, says 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 U.S. 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 successfully 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 federal 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 a
federal crime.

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.

Last year the conservative chief justice used his year-end report to scold
Senate Republicans for stalling on voting on President Clinton's nominees
to the federal bench. His rebuke appeared to bring results.

In 1998, 65 judges were confirmed by the Senate, a marked improvement from
the 36 approvals in 1997 and 16 in 1996.

In his new report, 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 the past 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 to the panel.