In United States v. Lopez (1995), the Supreme Court ruled that Congress overstepped its power to regulate commerce by prohibiting ______ in a school zone.

• A. Adult bookstores
• B. Cigarette sales
• C. Guns
• D. Alcohol sales

Answer: (C)

The main idea being tested is the limits of Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause. United States v. Lopez held that Congress went beyond its constitutional authority when it banned possession of a gun in a school zone under the Gun-Free School Zones Act. The Court said that merely possessing a gun near a school is not an economic activity that substantially affects interstate commerce, and regulating such possession is not a regulation of commerce among the states. Because the act targets a criminal statute about gun possession rather than a channel, instrumentality, or economic activity with a substantial interstate impact, it falls outside the scope of Congress’s commerce power.

In this context, the prohibited item is guns. The other options—adult bookstores, cigarette sales, or alcohol sales—were not the focus of this ruling; the decision centered on whether banning gun possession in school zones could be justified under the Commerce Clause, and the Court found it could not.