color of law
Accomplished Advocate
United States v. Danks, 221 F.3d 1037 (8th Cir. 1999) and related cases are contrary to the findings in Lopez.
United States v. Danks
Lopez:
Again as Lopez made clear, the mere fact of having a firearm in the school zone is not a crime. Possessing a firearm while conducting business (interstate commerce) in a school zone is the problem.
United States v. Danks
ection 922(q) contains language that ensures, on a case-by-case basis, that the firearm in question affects interstate commerce. We hold that the amended Act is a constitutional exercise of Congress's Commerce Clause power.
Lopez:
We conclude, consistent with the great weight of our case law, that the proper test requires an analysis of whether the regulated activity "substantially affects" interstate commerce.
The possession of a gun in a local school zone is in no sense an economic activity that might, through repetition elsewhere, substantially affect any sort of interstate commerce.
To uphold the Government's contentions here [that §922(q) is valid because possession of a firearm in a local school zone does indeed substantially affect interstate commerce], we would have to pile inference upon inference in a manner that would bid fair to convert congressional authority under the Commerce Clause to a general police power of the sort retained by the States.
Hodel, 452 U. S., at 311 ("imply because Congress may conclude that a particular activity substantially affects interstate commerce does not necessarily make it so"
Again as Lopez made clear, the mere fact of having a firearm in the school zone is not a crime. Possessing a firearm while conducting business (interstate commerce) in a school zone is the problem.