JUSTICE FAULTS CONGRESS FOR FEDERAL COURT LOAD

The Number Of New Crime Cases Rises 15 Percent In `98

Washington, D.C. - Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, in his
year-end report on the judiciary, faulted Congress 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 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.

Amidst 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," he 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 called for a more hands-off approach by
federal judges. When U.S. judges 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 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.

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.