Capitol Riot Defendants Celebrate Supreme Court's Ruling: ‘We Won!’

The Supreme Court decision could have major ramifications for more than 200 Americans charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress.

After the U.S. Supreme Court threw out an obstruction charge against a former police officer for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, directly across the street from the court, on Friday morning, other alleged insurrectionists celebrated.

“I should have never been charged with felony Obstruction, and neither should hundreds of other January 6th defendants,” wrote one of the convicted rioters, Alexander Sheppard, in a post Friday on X (formerly Twitter). The Ohio man, who was sentenced to 19 months in federal prison for storming past police lines into the Capitol, was released from prison in May pending the Supreme Court’s decision in Fischer v. United States.

“For nearly 4 years, the Department of Justice put us through hell for supporting President Trump and taking a stand for Election Integrity,” he wrote. “As one of the 52 defendants where Obstruction was my ONLY felony charge, I feel that a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I will soon be going to resentencing, and I pray that my judge now sees this whole case for what it always has been: a complete and total sham.”

The high court, in a 6-3 vote, ruled that Joseph Fischer, a former police officer who stormed the Capitol, should not have been charged with obstructing an official proceeding over the attempt to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 election by counting states’ electoral votes. The majority decision said that the obstruction statute federal prosecutors used to charged Fischer, Section 1512 of U.S. Code Title 18, was intended only for cases involving tampering with physical evidence.

“January 6 was an unprecedented attack on the cornerstone of our system of government — the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Friday, responding to the Supreme Court’s decision. “I am disappointed by today’s decision, which limits an important federal statute that the Department has sought to use to ensure that those most responsible for that attack face appropriate consequences.”