The Supreme Court narrowed when a Jan. 6 rioter can be charged with felony obstruction on Friday, in a ruling that could affect hundreds of participants in the Capitol attack—and potentially help former President Donald Trump in his federal election case.
Pro-Trump protesters gather at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Former police officer Joseph Fischer asked the Supreme Court to overturn his charges for obstructing an official proceeding, part of seven total criminal charges he faced after entering the Capitol building on Jan. 6, arguing the obstruction law used by prosecutors doesn’t apply to incidents like the Capitol riot.
Fischer is one of hundreds of rioters who were charged with obstructing an official proceeding based on their presence at the Capitol building on Jan. 6, as the law criminalizes any act that “corruptly … obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so” and is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
The court ruled 6-3 for Fischer, determining defendants can only be charged with an obstruction of an official proceeding if their conduct involved “records, documents, objects, or other things used in an official proceeding.”
Fischer’s lawyers argued the obstruction law, which was enacted in 2002 in the wake of the Enron scandal, applies only to “congressional investigations or inquiries and document or evidence impairment”—which doesn’t apply in the case of Jan. 6, since no documents were involved and there was no investigation that was being obstructed—while the DOJ argued the law is a “catch-all” provision that covers other conduct as well.
The court agreed with Fischer, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing it would be “peculiar” for Congress to have intended for it to be a “catch-all” statute, and adopting the government’s view “would also criminalize a broad swath of prosaic conduct, exposing activists and lobbyist[s] to decades in prison.”
The court’s ruling throws out a ruling upholding Fischer’s obstruction charges, but sends the dispute back to the lower court, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson—the sole liberal justice to rule for Fischer—writing in a concurring opinion that the lower court could still decide that the obstruction charges are valid, since records were used in the counting of electoral votes that rioters were trying to obstruct.
More than 330. That’s the number of people who have been charged with obstruction of an official proceeding, or attempted obstruction, based on their participation in the Jan. 6 riot, according to figures from the federal government released in January. Most federal judges who have heard cases involving the obstruction statute have sided with the government, the AP and Politico note. More than 1,265 people have been charged in total for participating in the attack.
The court’s ruling means that hundreds of rioters who were charged with obstruction may now try to have the charges lifted, though it remains to be seen how many will be affected by the court’s narrower definition of what constitutes obstructing an official proceeding.
Fischer was arrested in 2021 for being among the rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, with the government citing cell phone footage that shows the defendant charging police officers inside the Capitol building and text messages from before the riot saying, “Take democratic congress to the gallows,” and “Can’t vote if they can’t breathe..lol.” His case has not yet gone to trial. The former police officer didn’t express remorse for his actions, with the government noting in a court brief he said “he had no regrets” and “shouted profanities” when he was arrested, but Fischer has claimed in court that he was unlawfully charged with obstruction. Fischer went to the Supreme Court after a Trump-appointed federal district judge initially ruled in his favor, but multiple panels of appeals court judges sided with the government.