Landmark Supreme Court Case · Federalism and the Commerce Clause
United States v. Lopez (1995)
- Decided
- 1995
- Vote
- 5–4
- Opinion
- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist
- Constitutional provisions
Facts of the case
In 1992, Alfonso Lopez Jr., a 12th-grade student in San Antonio, Texas, brought a concealed handgun to school. He was charged under the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, which made it a crime to possess a firearm in a school zone. He argued that Congress had no constitutional authority to pass the law.
The constitutional question
Does the Commerce Clause give Congress the power to ban guns near schools?
The decision
No. Possessing a gun in a school zone is not an economic activity that substantially affects interstate commerce, so the law exceeded Congress's Commerce Clause power.
The Court's reasoning
Congress may regulate (1) the channels of interstate commerce, (2) its instrumentalities and persons or things in it, and (3) activities that substantially affect it. Accepting the government's argument would leave almost nothing that Congress could not regulate, erasing the line between national and local authority.
Why it matters
It was the first time in nearly 60 years that the Court struck down a federal law as exceeding the Commerce Clause, signaling renewed limits on federal power and support for federalism. United States v. Morrison (2000) followed. Congress later re-passed the law, adding a requirement that the gun have moved in interstate commerce.