| Venue: | SCOTUS |
| Facts: | The Gun Control Act mandates background checks for purchasers of firearms. There's no federal plan for getting this done, so on a "temporary" basis, the chief law enforcement officers of the local area needs to do it. Sheriffs resent this. |
| Posture: | Unclear, but there must have been some appealing along the way. 9th Cir. seems to have found for the US. |
| Issue: | Not made explicit, but basically, can congress legislate that the states enforce their policies? |
| Holding: | No. Reversed. |
| Rule: | Congress has the power to regulate individuals, not states. Congress can not conscript a state's officers into federal service. |
| Reasoning: | States must remain sovereign within their own spheres of authority. If congress could require the states to enforce its laws, this would diminish the power of the executive branch. Separation of powers is one of the consitution's structural protections of liberty. |
| Dicta: | Thomas (concurring): This might violate 2a. Also, since congress
can't regulate intrastate transfers of firearms, it follows
that it can't impress state LEOs to enforce such regulation.
Stevens (dissenting): quoting Holmes "the machinery of government would not work if it were not allowed a little play in its joints." Breyer (dissenting): how does creating a federal bureaucracy to enforce this law promote state sovereignty or individual liberty? |