The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the Justice Department overstepped in charging hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters with the crime of “obstruction of an official proceeding.” The decision could force prosecutors to reconsider some of its pending cases against rioters.
In a ideologically mixed 6-3 vote, the court ruled in Fischer v. United States that the Justice Department needs to raise the burden of proof for such charges, with prosecutors needing to demonstrate defendants were actually trying to disrupt the Electoral College count, not just enter the Capitol.
“Nothing in the text or statutory history suggests that (the law) is designed to impose up to 20 years’ imprisonment on essentially all defendants who commit obstruction of justice in any way and who might be subject to lesser penalties under more specific obstruction statutes,” Chief Justice John Robetts…
