The Clinton administration is asking the Supreme Court to reinstate a federal ban on possession of guns within 1,000 feet of schools.
"This is not about just regulating guns," Solicitor General Drew S. Days III told the court on Tuesday. "Congress is concerned with this impact on the national economy" and properly enacted the law under its power to regulate interstate commerce, he said.But the lawyer for a former Texas high school student convicted of taking a gun to school argued that Congress overstepped its authority when it enacted the 1990 Gun-Free School Zones Act. Congress did not properly outline a connection between gun possession and interstate commerce, said attorney John R. Carter.
More than 200,000 children carry firearms to school every day, according to Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., the sponsor of the 1990 law.
Gun-related violence at school makes it difficult for schools to function, Days said, adding that Congress is concerned about the effect of diminished student achievement on the economy.
Justice Antonin Scalia noted the high court has broadly defined Congress' authority to regulate interstate commerce. But he and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor expressed doubts that possessing a gun near a school falls within that definition.
Days acknowledged that his argument would leave no real limit on Congress' authority to pass criminal laws involving individual conduct that affects interstate commerce.
"Is there any violent crime that doesn't affect interstate commerce under your rationale?" asked Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Later, when Ginsburg again asked Days for an example of a law that would be outside Congress' authority to enact, Scalia interjected, "Don't give away anything here. They might want to do it."
Under questioning by Justice John Paul Stevens, Days said a federal law could pre-empt a local law that allowed students to take weapons to school.
The case involves the March 1992 arrest of Alfonso Lopez Jr., who was a senior at a San Antonio high school when he was arrested for bringing a .38-caliber handgun and five bullets to school. He said he was given the gun to deliver to someone else to use in what Lopez described as a "gang war."
Lopez was convicted under the law in federal court and was sentenced to six months in prison.
But a federal appeals court overturned his conviction, saying the law did not comply with the Constitution's commerce clause, which allows Congress to regulate interstate commerce. The law should have spelled out a connection between gun possession near schools and interstate commerce, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said.
In November 1993, Congress passed an amended version of the law that specifies a link with interstate commerce. But Carter contended the new version cannot be applied to Lopez's case.
Almost any kind of activity can be described as affecting interstate commerce, Carter said. But a law against firing a gun near a school or firebombing a school comes closer than a law simply banning possession of a gun, he said.
A decision in the case is expected by July.