On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the Department of Justice had to use the law as it was written and not the way they wished it was written. The case was Fischer vs. United States, and it was a challenge by one of the January 6 political prisoners to one of the counts of his conviction.
In a 6-3 decision delivered by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court held that: “To prove a violation of §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 other things used in an official proceeding, or attempted to do so.” Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s dissent was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
This holding reverses the D.C. Circuit, which had adopted a broader reading of the law in question to allow the charges against the defendant, Joseph Fischer, to go…
