Pubdate: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 Source: Tampa Tribune (FL) Copyright: 1999, The Tribune Co. Contact: http://www.tampatrib.com/ Forum: http://tampabayonline.net/interact/welcome.htm Author: SARAH HUNTLEY of The Tampa Tribune U.S. JUDGES BRISTLE AS FEDERAL LAWS RISE TAMPA - Is Congress putting too many crimes within the power of the federal courts? Some ranking judges and lawyers think so. After years of failing to collect child support from former Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Hugh Green, authorities tried a new approach: They turned to a federal grand jury. Now Green, once a free spender with a lavish lifestyle, is facing the possibility of up to six months in prison. The get-tough approach was the result of a law passed by Congress in 1992 allowing federal prosecutors to pursue deadbeat parents who don't live in the same state as their children. Child support activists say the federal statute offers parents like Theresa Webb, mother to two of Green's children, much-needed hope. But others aren't so sure. In recent months, high-ranking judges and lawyers have criticized what they see as a disturbing trend. More and more, they say, Congress is making a federal case out of crimes that were once left to state courts. Delinquent parents aren't the only ones feeling the pressure. The same year that law passed, Congress also set its sights on carjackers and animal activists. The three laws, combined with dozens of others enacted in past decades, provide proof that federalization is on the rise, and critics warn of dangerous consequences. ``The trend ... not only is taxing the judiciary's resources and affecting its budget needs, but it also threatens to change entirely the nature of our federal system,`` Chief Justice William Rehnquist said in his year-end report on the status of federal courts. To a large extent, the debate is a practical one. The number of federal criminal cases rose last year by 15 percent, reaching 57,691. That's nearly three times the increase in 1997. ``Not since 1972 have the criminal filings risen by double digits,'' Rehnquist said. The judiciary's resources have not kept pace with the growth. Judges in the Middle District of Florida, for example, consistently carry some of the country's highest caseloads. But the district has not been allocated a new judgeship in eight years. To some extent, the debate is philosophical. Despite the new laws, federal prosecutions still account for only 5 percent of the criminal cases pursued nationwide, says an American Bar Association task force. Nonetheless, the task force, which was headed by former Attorney General Edwin Meese, concurred with Rehnquist's conclusions. In a report released last month, the group rooted many of its arguments in longstanding principles of limited federal power. ``State governments are neither incapable nor unwilling to exercise their traditional responsibility to protect the lives and property of citizens,'' the report said. ``Congress ought to reflect long and hard before it enacts legislation which puts federal police in competition with the states for the confidence of its citizenry and limited law enforcement resources.'' As a former judge, U.S. Attorney Charles Wilson understands that perspective. But he says the new laws give his office, which handles prosecutions in Tampa, Orlando, Fort Myers and Jacksonville, a valuable range of options. ``It really is an advantage to a federal prosecutor to have as many options as possible. I like having that discretion,'' he said. Not every case brought to the U.S. Attorney's Office ends up as a federal prosecution. Between fiscal years 1993 and 1997, Wilson's office pursued criminal charges in 15 percent of the child support complaints and 37 percent of the carjacking complaints it reviewed, according to federal law enforcement data collected by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonprofit organization at Syracuse University. The office did not receive any referrals under the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, which makes it a federal offense to travel interstate to disrupt zoos and circuses. Although some cases were declined because of insufficient evidence or jurisdiction problems, most were passed over because they were being prosecuted by other agencies, the records show. ``We live in an era of law enforcement cooperation,'' Wilson said. In many instances, the decisions boil down to resources. Wilson said his office typically declines to prosecute carjacking cases that involve juveniles, for example, because state courts are better equipped to handle minors. In child support disputes, however, federal agencies sometimes have more clout. ``We can get a hold of a deadbeat parent who crosses state lines much easier than the state attorney can,'' Wilson said. Rehnquist has asked the subcommittee on courts and intellectual property of the House Judiciary Committee to conduct hearings on the issue of federalization later this year. - --- MAP posted-by: Patrick Henry