When I would tell conservatives in the legal world that I expected Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson — President Biden’s only Supreme Court appointee — to join the Republican-appointed justicesthe Biden Justice Department’s sweeping and novel interpretation of an obstruction of justice law, most thought it was a long shot.. The Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot is central to Democrats’ anti-Trump political strategy, and the rioters the most loathed and unpopular group in the liberal political imagination.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote in his majority opinion, which Jackson joined, that the government’s reading of the law was implausible. A general phrase, such as influencing a proceeding, is “given a more focused meaning by the terms linked to it.” Because 1512 enumerates ways to corruptly influence a proceeding by impairing evidence, Roberts reasoned, judges must read its prohibition on “otherwise” influencing a proceeding to refer to similar conduct.
The majority ruling doesn’t mean rioters will escape punishment, of course. As Roberts noted, the other counts Fischer is charged with “carry maximum penalties ranging from six months’ to eight years’ imprisonment.” What the ruling does is draw boundaries around a statute. Prosecutors need to charge people for crimes Congress created. They can’t bend the criminal code because they think the punishment for those crimes is insufficient.
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