Supreme Court grapples with obstruction charge for 350 Jan. 6 defendants, including Donald Trump

Rioters wave flags on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. The Supreme Court struggled Tuesday with the government’s case against 350 Jan. 6 defendants from the 2021 protest at the Capitol, with justices pondering how a law written in the wake of the Enron document-shredding scandal can be applied to those who brought the 2020 election certification to a halt.

“Tell me why I shouldn’t be concerned about the breadth of the government’s reading,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked, referring to the use of the statute against Jan. 6 defendants. “Do you think it’s plausible Congress would have written a statute so broadly?”“We have never had a situation before where there has been a situation like this with people attempting to stop a proceeding violently,” she said.

Federal authorities charged him with seven counts related to the Jan. 6 rally, but the one before the justices is Title 18 Section 1512, which reads: Fischer is charged under the second section of the law, which Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said was a catch-all meant to capture all sorts of activities and official proceedings.“It is about the direct effect … on evidence that is to be used in the proceeding,” he said.

Still, other justices questioned why it wasn’t applied to other protesters of various proceedings — including the high court’s own arguments.

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