CV NEWSFEED // The Supreme Court in a 6-3 ruling on Friday vacated and remanded Fischer v. US, narrowing the felony charges of “obstruction of an official proceeding” for defendants being prosecuted by the government over the events of January 6, 2021.
The Supreme Court determined that it was not permissible to expand the application of obstruction charges under the Sarbanes Oxley Act to include physical action unrelated to investigations. According to the ruling, the Biden Justice Department (DOJ) must prove that the actions of the January 6 protestors impaired objects or evidence to be used in official proceedings.
The opinion of the court stated:
An unbounded interpretation of subsection (c)(2) would also render superfluous the careful delineation of different types of obstructive conduct in §1512 itself. That section provides a reticulated list of nearly two dozen means of committing obstruction with penalties ranging from three years to life in prison, or even death. The Government’s reading would lump together under (c)(2) disparate types of conduct for which Congress had assigned proportionate sentences. The Government’s theory would also criminalize a broad swath of prosaic conduct, exposing activists and lobbyists to decades in prison.
Chief Justice John Roberts authored the opinion, with Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas joining him in the majority. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson joined in filing a concurring opinion, and Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Amy Coney Barrett filed a dissenting opinion.
In a post that gained over 1 million views in a matter of hours, conservative commentator and activist Charlie Kirk called the case a “massive win for restoring true justice.”
Investigative journalist Julie Kelly on Friday shared text messages from January 6 defendants who had been convicted. One texted: “Our 1512 has been overturned” due to the ruling. “I am not a felon.”
Kelly has written extensively about what she believes to be extreme and overly punitive actions taken against January 6 defendants by officials in the Biden administration and Capitol Police.
Kelly also shared a message from a young defendant still caught in the middle of a legal battle:
I was waiting for this day for a long time! It’s unfortunate that my judge said already that she would give me the same time regardless of this outcome. The damage is done.
Many commentators expressed surprise and disappointment about Barrett’s dissent.
The ruling will cause a ripple of changes for over 350 Americans who have been charged for their participation in the events of January 6. Many have already served time.
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