The chief lays down the law.

• Author: Savage, David G.
• Position: Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist reprimands Congress on creating federal laws that are redundant with existing state laws

Chief Justice William Rehnquist tells Congress to resist the temptation to turn every highly publicized crime into federal law. Crime and law enforcement are the states' business.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, a long-time defender of the states' special role in the American system of government, has denounced Congress for repeatedly enacting federal criminal laws that overlap state laws.

The states have the primary role in the area of crime and law enforcement, he said in his annual message on the judiciary, and Congress needs to think twice before turning "every highly publicized societal ill or sensational crime" into a new federal law.

"The trend to federalize crimes that traditionally have been handled in state courts not only is taxing the judiciary's resources," he said, "but it also threatens to change entirely the nature of the federal system ... Federal courts were not created to adjudicate local crimes, no matter how sensational or heinous the crimes may be. State courts do, can and should handle such problems."

Before the 1960s, the federal role in law enforcement was small and distinct. Then, fears of a "national police force" were often voiced. For that reason, the FBI steered clear of many investigations because the alleged crime had no interstate link. However, when civil rights activists in the South met with violence, federal authorities were prompted to take a more aggressive role. By the 1970s, the Nixon administration's push for "law and order" also translated into more federal involvement in crime fighting. Perhaps the greatest change came in 1986 when Congress escalated the "war on drugs" by giving U.S. attorneys broad powers to prosecute drug crimes.

In this decade, Congress has added a series of new federal crimes, often with little fanfare. Rehnquist cited as examples the Anti-Car Theft Act of 1992 designed to combat the wave of highly publicized carjackings, the Child Support Recovery Act of 1992 intended to prosecute so-called "deadbeat dads" and the Animal Enterprise Protection Act of 1992 that allows the prosecution of animal-rights activists who break into research labs.

For his part, the chief justice adheres to the old-fashioned view. "The principle was enunciated by Abraham Lincoln in the 19th century and Dwight Eisenhower in the 20th century: Matters that can be adequately handled by the states should be left to them. Matters that cannot be so handled should be undertaken by the federal government,"...