Aislyn G. answered • 12/01/20
College Student with a Flexible Schedule
In the Constitution, Article 1 Section 8- commonly referred to as the Commerce Clause -grants Congress the power to regulate commerce between the US and foreign nations, and between individual US states. In The United States v Lopez, Congress justified their passing of the Gun-Free School Zones Act by citing this clause. They reasoned that because a violent crime would make people less likely to travel or move to an area and because violent crimes would raise insurance rates in said area, that the entire national economy would be affected by school violence. They also made the point that gun violence in schools would lead to less educated citizens which would also affect the national economy.
Alfonso Lopez' lawyers argued that Congress overstepped their powers by passing this law. A person bringing a gun into a school does not qualify as interstate commerce, giving Congress no power to regulate this act. Myself and the Supreme Court agree with this point and I think the most important point made in this ruling was in the majority opinion of the Supreme Court where they stated that if they allowed Congress to use this slippery slope reasoning to justify the Gun-Free School Act, they could use the Commerce Clause to rationalize almost any regulation they wanted. Just because an act of Congress has good intentions, does not mean we can allow them to extend their powers beyond the ones granted to them without going through the proper processes.
