The FBI delved into the backgrounds and motives of those who came to the Capitol. Based on those investigations, about 330 of the rioters were also charged with seeking to obstruct an official proceeding.

One of those was Joseph Fischer, an off-duty Pennsylvania police officer, who said on social media that he expected the attack on the Capitol “might get violent” but that it was needed “to send a message that we the people hold the real power.”

When Fischer was arrested, he was charged with six counts of assault and disruption as well as a seventh charge of obstruction, a felony charge which could send him to prison for several years.

A federal judge rejected the obstruction charge in his case, but the U.S. Court of Appeals restored it in a 2-1 decision.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear his appeal.

Most of the justices describe themselves as “textualists” who decide cases based on the words of the laws. But in this case, like many others, the words can be read differently.

The Sarbanes-Oxley law was adopted after the collapse of energy firm Enron in an accounting scandal that also took down the Arthur Andersen accounting firm.

Congress wanted to make clear that shredding documents could be prosecuted as a crime.

At issue was how to interpret two clauses in the law. It says it’s a crime if someone “corruptly alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so.”

U.S. Solicitor Gen. Elizabeth Prelogar said the prosecutions rely on a “straightforward application” of the law as written.

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