288 PART ThRee • InsTITuTIons of AmeRIcAn GoveRnmenT
held, for the first time in sixty years, that Congress had overreached its powers under
the commerce clause when it attempted to regulate the possession of guns in school
zones. According to the Court, the possession of guns in school zones had nothing to do
with the commerce clause.^9 Yet in a 2005 case, the Court ruled that Congress’s power to
regulate commerce allowed it to ban marijuana use even when a state’s law permitted
such use and the growing and use of the drug were strictly local in nature.^10 What these
two rulings had in common was that they supported policies generally considered to be
conservative—the right to possess firearms on the one hand, and a strong line against
marijuana on the other.The Roberts court
John Roberts became chief justice in 2005, following the death of Chief Justice Rehnquist.
Replacing one conservative chief justice with another did not immediately change the
Court’s ideological balance. The real change came in January 2006, when Samuel Alito- United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995).
- Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005).
supreme court justices (as of 2014). Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan are the
most recent additions to the United States Supreme Court. (Kagan—AP Photo/Alex Brandon; Sotomayor—AP
Photo/Charles Dharapak; remaining photos—U.S. Supreme Court)9781285436388_12_ch12_271-296.indd 288 10/29/13 11:01 AM
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