The question before the court was whether the "obstruction of an official proceeding" statute could be used in how the Justice Department weaponized it to go after hundreds of January 6 defendants. The plaintiff, Joseph Fischer, a former police officer, argued that the statute only pertained to evidence tampering in a congressional investigation.
The court reverses the D.C. Circuit, which had adopted a broader reading of the law to allow the charges against Fischer to go forward. The case now goes back to the D.C. Circuit -- which, the court says, can assess whether the indictment can still stand in light of this new and narrower interpretation.