The Supreme Court has ruled that prosecutors overstepped in using an obstruction law used in some cases against members of the mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. From the New York Times:
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, read the law narrowly, saying it applied only when the defendant’s actions impaired the integrity of physical evidence.
The vote was 6 to 3, but it featured unusual alliances. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a liberal, voted with the majority. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative, wrote the dissent.
Most Jan. 6 defendants have not been charged under the law, which prosecutors have reserved for the most serious cases, and those who have been charged under it face other counts, as well. The defendant in the case before the justices, Joseph W. Fischer, for instance, faced six other charges.
The question for the high court addressed the intent of the law, which was prompted by accounting fraud and the destruction of documents. The justices were tasked with determining whether it could be used to prosecute Joseph W. Fischer, a former Pennsylvania police officer. As the article quoted above states, most of the Jan. 6 rioters weren’t charged with this particular law.
The Supreme Court sided with a member of the Jan. 6 mob that stormed the Capitol saying that prosecutors had overstepped in using an obstruction law to charge him. The ruling may affect hundreds of other prosecutions of rioters. Follow live. https://t.co/uUZCQ073jb pic.twitter.com/XIdsqdIERG
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 28, 2024
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