This particular act deprives "any individual knowingly to possess a firearm at a place that [he] knows...is a school zone." However, Alfonzo Lopez denied and appealed his arrest by arguing that the law was unconstitutional; he claims that “the laws went beyond the power of the United States Congress; he believed that Congress was not allowed to create laws that essentially control the public school district”(2015 par.1).
Withal, Alfonso Lopez’s first defense failed because according to the court, Congress had the authority to administer enterprise that affected schools throughout the United States. His defense to the initial court was brought to the Fifth Circuit of Appeals, and he used his claimed anew about Commerce Clause being a violation of the Constitution of the United States. The Fifth Circuit took in the case and stated that the act was beyond the power of
Congress. Moreover, this case proved that the Gun Free School Zones Act was beyond the authority of Congress for regulating interstate commerce. This law is also a criminal statute, meaning a control to threatening activity, that does not deal with “commerce” or economic activity. In other words, the court did not validated the Act because it did not fall within the commerce clause, therefore it was not authority for Federal Government to regulate guns in school zones, but the States’ Government. In conclusion, everyone had opinions about this incident, on weather Lopez deserved to win the case since he was endangering the students around him. For example, “The dissenting opinion was from Justice Bryer who said that Congress had the power to regulate ANYTHING that they "reasonably believed" could affect commerce…” (par.3). However, this would mean giving more power to the Federal government when this was within the States’ power and authority.