United States v. Lopez
Citation: 514 U.S. 549 (U.S. Supreme Court, 1995)
Facts
Alfonso Lopez, a 12th-grade student, carried a concealed handgun into his San Antonio high school. He was charged under the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 (GFSZA), a federal statute that criminalized possession of a firearm in a school zone. Lopez challenged the law as exceeding Congress’s Commerce Clause authority.
Issue
Does the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 exceed Congress’s authority under the Commerce Clause?
Holding
The Supreme Court (5–4, Rehnquist, C.J.) struck down the GFSZA as exceeding Congress’s Commerce Clause power, holding that gun possession in a school zone was not an economic activity with a substantial effect on interstate commerce.
Rule
Congress may regulate under the Commerce Clause: (1) the channels of interstate commerce, (2) the instrumentalities of and persons or things in interstate commerce, and (3) activities that substantially affect interstate commerce. Purely non-economic, local activity does not fall within the third category merely because of attenuated chains of causation.
Significance
Lopez was the first case in nearly sixty years in which the Court struck down a federal statute as exceeding Commerce Clause power, signaling the Rehnquist Court’s willingness to enforce some limits on federal legislative authority. It revived the distinction between commercial/economic and non-commercial/non-economic activity that later appeared in NFIB v. Sebelius.