Supreme Court, by 6-3 vote, limits reach of federal statute criminalizing obstructing official proceeeding in Jan 6 prosecution

With a notable configuration of Justices, the Supreme Court by a 6-3 vote further continued its recent tendency to give a federal criminal statute a limited reading through its decision today in Fischer v. US, No. 23-55 (S. Ct. June 28, 2024) (available here). Chief Justice Roberts authored the opinion for Court, which starts and ends this way:

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 imposes criminal liability on anyone who corruptly “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.” 18 U.S.C. §1512(c)(1). The next subsection extends that prohibition to anyone who “otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so.” §1512(c)(2). We consider whether this “otherwise” clause should be read in light of the limited reach of the specific provision that precedes it….

To prove a violation of Section 1512(c)(2), the Government must establish that the defendant impaired the availability or integrity for use in an official proceeding of records, documents, objects, or as we earlier explained, other things used in the proceeding, or attempted to do so.  See supra, at 9.  The judgment of the D. C. Circuit is therefore vacated, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. On remand, the D. C. Circuit may assess the sufficiency of Count Three of Fischer’s indictment in light of our interpretation of Section 1512(c)(2).

Justice Jackson authored a concurring opinion which has this paragraph to conclude its opening:

Notwithstanding the shocking circumstances involved in this case or the Government’s determination that they warrant prosecution, today, this Court’s task is to determine what conduct is proscribed by the criminal statute that has been invoked as the basis for the obstruction charge at issue here. I join in the Court’s opinion because I agree with the majority that §1512(c)(2) does not reach “‘all forms of obstructive conduct’” and is, instead, “limited by the preceding list of criminal violations” in §1512(c)(1). Ante, at 7–8. I write separately to explain why and how that interpretation of §1512(c) follows from the legislative purpose that this statute’s text embodies.

Justice Barrett authored a lengthy dissent, which was joined by Justices Sotomayor and Kagan. Here is how it starts:

Joseph Fischer allegedly joined a mob of rioters that breached the Capitol on January 6, 2021.  At the time, Congress was meeting in a joint session to certify the Electoral College results. The riot forced Congress to suspend the proceeding, delaying it for several hours.

The Court does not dispute that Congress’s joint session qualifies as an “official proceeding”; that rioters delayed the proceeding; or even that Fischer’s alleged conduct (which includes trespassing and a physical confrontation with law enforcement) was part of a successful effort to forcibly halt the certification of the election results.  Given these premises, the case that Fischer can be tried for “obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding” seems open and shut. So why does the Court hold otherwise?

Because it simply cannot believe that Congress meant what it said.  Section 1512(c)(2) is a very broad provision, and admittedly, events like January 6th were not its target. (Who could blame Congress for that failure of imagination?) But statutes often go further than the problem that inspired them, and under the rules of statutory interpretation, we stick to the text anyway.  The Court, abandoning that approach, does textual backflips to find some way — any way — to narrow the reach of subsection (c)(2).  I respectfully dissent.