{"id":10510,"date":"2024-06-28T11:47:33","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T18:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=10510"},"modified":"2024-06-29T17:36:22","modified_gmt":"2024-06-30T00:36:22","slug":"supreme-court-narrows-an-obstruction-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=10510","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Narrows an Obstruction Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

No one was surprised when the rioters who broke into the Capitol on January 6, 2021 were charged with crimes. A lot of people were surprised when they were charged with violating the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, a law mostly about financial matters enacted in the wake of the Enron fiasco. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court disapproved the creatively broad reading of the law behind these prosecutions in Fischer<\/em> v. United States<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The law in question, 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 1512(c), provides:<\/p>\n

(c) Whoever corruptly–<\/p>\n

(1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or<\/p>\n

(2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so,<\/p>\n

shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Is the “otherwise” broad enough to take a law that is mostly about documents and extend it to breaking into buildings? No, said the majority of six. The lineup is a bit unusual.<\/p>\n

Roberts<\/span>, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh<\/span>, and Jackson<\/span>, JJ., joined. Jackson<\/span>, J., filed a concurring opinion. Barrett<\/span>, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Sotomayor<\/span> and Kagan<\/span>, JJ., joined.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Attorney General Garland is quoted in the WaPo<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cJanuary 6 was an unprecedented attack on the cornerstone of our system of government \u2014 the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next,” Garland said in a written statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vast majority of the more than 1,400 defendants charged for their illegal actions on January 6 will not be affected by this decision,\u201d he added, noting that not a single Jan. 6 defendant was charged solely with the crime at issue in the Fischer case. \u201cFor the cases affected by today\u2019s decision, the Department will take appropriate steps to comply with the Court\u2019s ruling.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No one was surprised when the rioters who broke into the Capitol on January 6, 2021 were charged with crimes. A lot of people were surprised when they were charged with violating the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, a law mostly about financial matters enacted in the wake of the Enron fiasco. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court disapproved the creatively broad reading of the law behind these prosecutions in Fischer v. United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"\nSupreme Court Narrows an Obstruction Law - Crime & Consequences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=10510\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court Narrows an Obstruction Law - Crime & Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"No one was surprised when the rioters who broke into the Capitol on January 6, 2021 were charged with crimes. 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