[ April 30, 2026 ]
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch grilled Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar over the extreme prison sentences handed down to January 6 defendants when compared with similarly situated left-wing protesters and rioters, the overwhelming majority of whom face slaps on the wrist if they face any accountability at all.
Gorsuch exposed how the DOJ creates a two-tier system of justice.
The court is currently hearing oral arguments in a case brought forward by former Pennsylvania police officer Joseph Fischer, one of several hundred January 6 defendants charged with an obscure felony for “obstruction of an official proceeding.” The novel legal theory draws from the Enron corruption scandal and has been exclusively deployed against January 6 defendants.
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Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch nukes Joe Biden's DOJ over January 6th sentences:
Gorsuch lists multiple cases of folks who "obstructed a Congressional proceeding" without receiving a 20 year sentence.
1. Sit-ins at a trial (Kavanaugh protests)
2. Pulling a fire alarm (Rep.… pic.twitter.com/DWETkzi7JI— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) April 16, 2024
Government is using an obscure financial crimes statute about delaying Congressional proceeding to destroy the lives of J6 protesters. Gorsuch just asked whether pulling a fire alarm before a Congressional vote could qualify (e..g, what Democrat Jamaal Bowman did recently) and…
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) April 16, 2024
What the government conceded today is that 1512c2 has only been used in this manner against J6ers (something DC circuit already admitted) and would not apply to other disruptive demonstrations that we see on nearly a daily basis.
Thomas, Gorsuch, Roberts, and Kavanaugh pressed… https://t.co/zZBV9OKVRI
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) April 16, 2024
Or this… attempting to burn down a federal courthouse in Portland definitely was an attempt to impede official proceedings of the court… no? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/wW35gTo3or
— jasoncloninger (@jasoncloninger) April 16, 2024
Gorsuch hammers Biden DOJ on ‘mostly peaceful protests’
By: Washington Examiner, April 17, 2024;
ADVERTISEMENTSupreme Court justice Neil Gorsuch on Tuesday questioned the Biden administration’s ranking Justice Department lawyer about the scope of a federal criminal law used against protesters during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol charged for “obstruction” of an official proceeding.
Two of the four counts against former President Donald Trump in special counsel Jack Smith’s election subversion case are also related to the same question, which is whether the statute known as 1512(c)(2) that makes it a federal crime to “corruptly” obstruct an official proceeding applies to otherwise nonviolent protesters. Gorsuch, an appointee of Trump, asked a range of questions, including whether a “mostly peaceful protest” would be covered under the law.
The justice grilled Justice Department Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar on whether the same law could be applied to Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), who was criminally charged for setting off a fire alarm in the Capitol last fall ahead of a government funding vote.
“Would a sit-in that disrupts a trial or access to a federal courthouse qualify? Would a heckler at today’s audience qualify, or a heckler at the State of the Union address? Would pulling a fire alarm before a vote qualify for 20 years in federal prison?” Gorsuch asked without directly naming Bowman.
Prelogar responded that “to the extent that your hypotheticals are pressing on the idea of a peaceful protest, even one that’s quite disruptive, it’s not clear to me that the government would be able to show that each … of those protesters had corrupt intent.”
“So a mostly peaceful protest … that actually obstructs and impedes an official proceeding for an indefinite period would not be covered?” Gorsuch asked, noting in his hypothetical that “they intend to do it.”
The phrase “mostly peaceful protest” was repeated in public discourse during the summer of unrest in 2020, when left-leaning protesters took the streets across the United States in protest over the death of George Floyd, and it was used in a now-infamous chyron during a 2020 CNN broadcast, where a reporter stood in front of a burning structure in the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin.
ADVERTISEMENTPrelogar told Gorsuch that if a hypothetical person intended “to obstruct and we are able to show that they knew that it was wrongful conduct with a consciousness of wrongdoing, then yes, that is a 1512(c)(2) offense,” Prelogar clarified.
The defendant in the case that was argued on Tuesday, Fischer v. United States, is former Pennsylvania police officer Joseph Fischer, who is accused of being part of a crowd that pushed against Capitol Police officers while calling on those around him to “hold the line.”
SCOTUS Fischer vs U.S. | Hearing on obstruction Justice Gorsuch asked if pulling a firearm to prevent a vote would subject you to this 20 year felony. 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/vVEoLdnW2C
— Savannah (@BasedSavannah) April 16, 2024
https://twitter.com/Bubblebathgirl/status/1780279418042146854
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