Supreme Court Case Summary

Words: 1020
Pages: 5

CASE #1:
Supreme Court Case: United States vs. Lopez

Context/Background (2-3 Sentences):
• Alfonso Lopez, Jr., a 12th-grade student, walked onto his high school’s campus with a hidden and loaded gun
• Texas charged him with firearm possession on a school premises (state charges)
• The next day, the state charges were dropped, and instead he was federally charged because he violated The Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 (GFSZA)
• The Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 (GFSZA) states that it is unlawful for anyone to possess a firearm at a location where he knows or has reason to know is a school
• When he wanted to dismiss the charge, the district court refused stating that the GFSZA act was a constitutional power of Congress under the Commerce Clause in article 1.
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Morrison

Context/Background (2-3 Sentences):
• In 1994, Christy Brzonkala, a female student enrolled at Virginia Tech, sued Antonio Morrison for rape
• After two trails, where Morrison was found guilty, he appealed through the universities administrative system and in result, his punishment was revoked
• After Brzonkala dropped out of school, she sued Morrison, his friend Crawford and the university again under the
• Violence Against Women Act of 1994, an act that penalizes violent crimes motivated by gender

Constitutional Questions (1-2 Sentences):
• Is VAWA constitutional exercise of Congress’ commerce power?

Court’s Opinion (2-3 Sentences):
• Morrison and Crawford moved to dismiss Brzonkala's suit on the premises that VAVA was unconstitutional.
• While dismissing the case, the District Court found that Congress lacked authority to put into practice VAWA under either the Commerce Clause or the Fourteenth Amendment, which Congress had explicitly identified as the sources of federal authority for