Welcome back, Deadline: Legal Newsletter readers. We’re almost done with this Supreme Court term’s rulings, which are set to conclude Monday with Donald Trump’s immunity case among the final decisions. But the court issued several important rulings this week, including another Jan. 6-related case that could also affect Trump’s.
The other case is Fischer v. United States, in which the court sided with a Jan. 6 defendant on the scope of the federal charge of obstructing an official proceeding. Chief Justice John Roberts narrowed the charge for the six-justice majority, writing that prosecutors must show that a 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.”
That limits the law’s use against rioters in the Justice Department’s massive effort to prosecute them. But Fischer’s impact may be limited, as Attorney General Merrick Garland noted Friday that “the vast majority of the more than 1,400 defendants charged for their illegal actions on January 6 will not be affected by this decision.” That’s because Garland said that “there are no cases in which the Department charged a January 6 defendant only with the offense at issue in Fischer.”
What Fischer means for Trump remains to be seen. Two of the four charges in his federal election interference case involve that obstruction law. But his case is different in that he isn’t charged with storming the Capitol but rather with allegedly engaging in a broader conspiracy to subvert the 2020 election. So even under the law’s now more-limited scope, special counsel Jack Smith may still be able to go forward with those charges against Trump, though it may require more litigation to figure that out.
But first, we need the immunity decision to see what’s next in Trump’s case, including when it might go to trial, if ever. We expect that ruling on Monday when the court is poised to issue its remaining decisions. True to form, the court isn’t in a rush to decide Trump v. United States, just as it wasn’t in a rush to set the case for argument, which happened on the last hearing day of the term.
Yet there’s much more than Trump on the docket, though his three high court appointees have heavily influenced the court, underscoring the stakes for the coming election. The GOP-appointed justices’ impact was on full display this week in ditching a long-standing precedent on federal agency power and narrowing federal bribery prosecutions, among other appeals, including ones on the environment, homelessness and abortion.
We now look to Monday for the immunity ruling as Trump gears up for sentencing the following week in New York. Watch for a special edition of the newsletter after the opinion comes out to cap this historic term.
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