`TREND TO FEDERALIZE CRIMES' DECRIED

Chief justice says Congress burdens court system

WASHINGTON -- Demanding a fundamental change in the nation's crime-fighting
strategy, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist on Thursday called on Congress
to halt the politically popular practice of enacting federal laws against
an ever-greater number of crimes once handled in state courts.

``The trend to federalize crimes that traditionally have been handled in
state courts . . . threatens to change entirely the nature of our federal
system,'' Rehnquist said in his year-end report on the federal judiciary.

The chief justice was unusually blunt in questioning the motives behind
recently enacted statutes that have made federal crimes out of misdeeds
ranging from carjackings to failure to pay child support. And while
Rehnquist has occasionally expressed concern about the growing jurisdiction
of the federal courts, his new report is by far the most explicit and
represents his first formal complaint to Congress on behalf of the federal
judiciary. As a result, legislators and others who follow the courts said
it appears certain to frame legislative debate in the coming year.

This past year alone, the number of criminal case filings in federal courts
jumped 15 percent to 57,691 cases, the biggest increase in 26 years and one
that came on top of steady growth in prior years.

Rehnquist put the blame squarely on Capitol Hill, saying, ``Congress has
contributed significantly to the rising caseload by continuing to
federalize crimes already covered by state laws.''

``The pressure in Congress to appear responsive to every highly publicized
societal ill or sensational crime'' needs to be balanced against a
determination of whether the job can be left to the states, Rehnquist said,
admonishing Congress to consider ``whether we want most of our legal
relationships decided at the national rather than the local level'' the
next time it feels such pressure.

Besides carjackings and child support, other legislation has increased the
federal government's jurisdiction in the areas of civil rights, drug
trafficking and terrorism.

Not all the laws that federalize crimes start in Congress, however.
President Clinton, for example, launched an initiative on child abuse this
week that featured a proposal to toughen federal homicide laws to include
the death of a child resulting from a pattern of abuse and to encourage
states to take a similar course.

``For the past decade both Congress and the White House have found that
putting new offenses under federal jurisdiction is an easy way to earn
bragging rights for being tough on crime, and these days passing a law
federalizing a crime is especially attractive because you don't have to
appropriate any money for it,'' said Ross K. Baker, a professor of
political science at Rutgers University.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
disputed that contention in a statement issued Thursday in response to
Rehnquist's remarks. ``One could argue that Congress' continuing commitment
to a strong federal law enforcement effort and the associated increases in
financial support for additional law enforcement officers and federal
prosecutors has a greater and more immediate effect on criminal filings
than do the few new laws referred to in the report.''

According to a recent study of the federal caseload by the government
office that tracks such filings, a skyrocketing growth in immigration cases
- -- from some 2,000 cases in 1992 to more than 9,000 in 1998 -- is
responsible for a big chunk of the increase. This results from initiatives
to emphasize the prosecution of illegal immigrant smugglers and of
foreign-born persons who re-enter the United States after being deported or
after conviction for a serious crime while residing here.

Drug cases constitute another large component of the growing federal
criminal caseload, with an increase from fewer than 12,500 cases in 1992 to
more than 16,000 in 1998.