Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz says the Supreme Court’s ruling Friday that raised the legal bar for prosecutors pursuing obstruction charges against Jan. 6 protesters is a victory for civil liberties.
The justices ruled 6-3 to throw out a lower court's decision that had allowed a charge of corruptly obstructing an official proceeding — the congressional certification of President Joe Biden's victory over former President Donald Trump that the rioters sought to prevent — against defendant Joseph Fischer, a former police officer. The justice directed the lower court to reconsider the matter.
"It's so interesting because it's the conservative justices who are giving some meaning to civil liberties and the liberal justices who are saying lock them up and throw them in jail," Dershowitz said on Newsmax TV's "National Report."
"It shows the partisan nature of the judiciary."
The justices ruled that the charge of obstructing an official proceeding, enacted in 2002 in response to the financial scandal that brought down Enron Corp., must include proof that defendants tried to tamper with or destroy documents. Only some of the people who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, fall into that category, the court ruled.
The court, in the decision authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, ruled that an obstruction conviction requires prosecutors to show that a defendant "impaired the availability or integrity" of documents other records related to an official proceeding - or attempted to do so.
Dershowitz said the ruling is good for civil liberties.
"This is a victory for civil liberties, a victory for truly liberal people, but also a victory for Republicans and for Trump," the famed legal scholar said.
He also said the ruling could benefit those who engaged in anti-Israel and anti-Semitic protesters on college campuses.
"You can't give rights to some people without giving rights to other people," Dershowitz said.
"This may give rights to all protesters. This is a ruling by conservative justices that is very supportive of civil liberties. It really is a very dramatic demonstration of how partisanship is more important than principle, even for some justices of the Supreme Court."
Overall, Dershowitz said he was happy with the ruling.
"I think it’s a good day for America, a good day for protesters, a good day for civil liberties," Dershowitz said. "This was a necessary response to the over broadening of criminal law."
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Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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