Photo: Alamy
One of the Supreme Court’s most highly anticipated opinions, Fischer v. United States, was handed down on Friday, likely upending the federal prosecutions of over 350 January 6 defendants and at least a portion of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of President Trump.
In a 6-3 decision, the Court ruled that the three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit erred when it reinstated a charge for obstructing an official proceeding against Boston police officer Joseph Fischer.
The charge was initially dismissed by a lower court, but the Department of Justice appealed and won, which led to the case’s eventual appeal to the Supreme Court.
Over 152 defendants have been convicted on the charge, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
The Court held, “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.”
The ruling remanded Fischer’s case back to the lower court so that it could determine whether he should be charged under the narrowed scope interpreted in the majority opinion.
Unlike the typical 6-3 Supreme Court decisions, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson sided with the majority, while Justice Amy Coney Barrett sided with the two other liberal justices and wrote a dissenting opinion.
President Trump reacted to the ruling in a Truth Social post, writing, “Big News!”, along with a photo of a summary of the Court’s opinion.