The Supreme Court has upended hundreds of prosecutions related to the Capitol riot—including one of former President Donald Trump’s criminal cases—by ruling Friday that the feds must narrow their usage of the charge of obstructing of an official proceeding.
In a 6-3 ruling, the justices significantly weakened the statute under which more than 330 rioters had been charged. Trump has also been charged with obstruction in his criminal case in Washington, D.C., related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
In the case, Fischer v. US, a former cop who was indicted for participating in the riot argued that prosecutors had bastardized the charge of “obstruction of an official proceeding,” an offense that was introduced after the Enron financial scandal in 2002 and was intended to relate to the destruction of records in relation to an investigation.
Lawyers for Joseph Fischer, who was benched by the North Cornwall Township Police Department after he was indicted, argued that Fischer was “not part of the mob” that stormed the Capitol as lawmakers were inside, and that the obstruction charge had “never been used to prosecute anything other than evidence tampering.”
According to videos he posted online himself, Fischer was instead part of a group that rushed a line of cops outside the Capitol while shouting “hold the line” and “motherfuckers.” (In a private Facebook message days later, he joked that he may need a new job but that he had “no regrets and give zero shits.”)
Lawyers for the government argued that, although Fischer only entered the building once lawmakers were in recess, he had said beforehand that he was prepared to use violence to intimidate them. “He said they can’t vote if they can’t breathe,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said.
On Friday, the court reversed a ruling by the D.C. Circuit court, which had initially adopted a broader reading of the law. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson sided with the conservative justices while Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented.
In a hearing in April, the Supreme Court’s conservative-leaning justices appeared to agree with Fischer’s argument that the Department of Justice’s use of the charge was too broad, theorizing that it could apply to someone who protests inside a courtroom, heckles the president at an official event, or pulls a fire alarm in the Capitol building to delay a congressional vote.
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