Court Cases

U.S. v. Lopez (1995)

50-year trend of the Supreme Court ruling in favor of expanding congressional powers
Usage of the Commerce Clause to justify gun laws

Situation
- Alfonso Lopez was charged with bringing a gun into a Texas school (charged at trial court)
  - Gun Free School Zones Act of 1990
- Lopez’s sentence was overturned by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
Claims
- U.S - Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 (Commerce Clause)
  - Bringing a gun into schools affects interstate commerce by:
    - Imposing financial costs by raising insurance
    - Preventing travel to areas of violent crime, which disturbs economic activity
    - Distracting education, leading to a weaker population and thus a weaker economy
- Lopez - Gun ≠ Interstate Commerce
Resolution - Lopez wins (5-4)
- Congress does not have the absolute power to regulate any matter relating to violent crime or economic productivity

Preserved the system of federalism
- Reversed the 50-year trend
Requires future gun laws by Congress to have “moved in interstate commerce“

Resolution - McCulloch wins
- Maryland does not have the power to tax the Second Bank of the United States
- Congress has the power to create the bank under the elastic clause & the supremacy clause

Resolution - Gibbons wins
- Congress has the power to regulate navigation as a part of regulating interstate commerce