Us V Lopez Case Study

In the U.S. Supreme Court case of U.S. v Lopez (1995), a twelfth grade boy, Alfonzo Lopez, brought a loaded .38 caliber firearm to his local Texas high school. After being reported to the front office, Lopez was questioned about the gun and openly admitted that the firearm was in his possession. Texas then convicted Alfonzo of a criminal statute, which prohibited the carrying of a gun on school grounds. However, the charges were dropped rather quickly when the United States Government charged Lopez with violating the Gun-Free School Zones Act.

After pleading not guilty, Lopez’s attorneys attempted to dismiss the charges, stating that “Congress had exceeded its authority by passing the act,”(Anderson) under the Commerce Clause. Congress refused the request, and Lopez was sentenced to six months in prison and two years of supervised release. Alfonzo appealed this notion, and the case was sent to the Supreme Court. After reviewing the case and reconsidering the decision, Chief Justice Rehnquist ruled in favor of Alfonzo Lopez. The Court stated that Lopez’s crime was “a criminal statute and had nothing to do with interstate commerce or economic

v. Lopez (1995) continues to affect the judicial system to this day. This case is the precedent for many of the Supreme Court cases concerning the commerce clause. Following U.S. v. Lopez, the Supreme Court had many Affordable Care Act cases. In these cases, the powers of Congress, under the Commerce Clause, were again limited. The congressional powers were limited because the Court declared that the Affordable Care Act “did not license Congress to include in the PPACA a provision that required individuals to purchase health insurance”(Commerce Clause). The Affordable Care Act trials show that Congress cannot always make whatever law that they want, and they cannot use the Commerce Clause as an excuse or abuse its power. This case further proved the reasoning behind the decision in U.S. v