By Stephen Dinan and Alex Swoyer | The Washington Times
The Supreme Court struggled Tuesday with the government’s case against 350 Jan. 6 defendants from the 2021 protest at the Capitol, with justices pondering how a law written in the wake of the Enron document-shredding scandal can be applied to those who brought the 2020 election certification to a halt.
The law criminalizes obstructing or impeding an official proceeding, which the Biden administration says goes beyond courtrooms and criminal investigations and covers Congress’ electoral vote counting that the demonstration delayed.
But GOP-appointed justices repeatedly challenged the Justice Department’s aggressive use of the law against the Jan. 6 defendants, questioning why it wasn’t also used in 2020 against rioters who attacked the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, or in 2023 against Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who disrupted a critical vote in the House of Representatives by pulling a fire alarm.