Sotomayor, J., dissenting
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Nos. 22–23 and 22–331
JEAN FRANCOIS PUGIN, PETITIONER
22–23v.22–23
MERRICK B. GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
MERRICK B. GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL, PETITIONER
22–331v.22–331
FERNANDO CORDERO-GARCIA, AKA FERNANDO CORDERO
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
[June 22, 2023]
Justice Sotomayor, with whom Justice Gorsuch joins, and with whom Justice Kagan joins as to all but Part III, dissenting.
From early American laws, to dictionaries, to modern federal and state obstruction statutes, interference with an ongoing investigation or proceeding is at the core of what it means to be “an offense relating to obstruction of justice,” 8 U. S. C. §1101(a)(43)(S). The Court circumvents this ample evidence only by casting a wide net and then throwing back all but the bycatch. That approach “turns the categorical approach on its head,” Esquivel-Quintana v. Sessions, 581 U. S. 385, 393 (2017), and subverts the commonly understood meaning of “obstruction of justice” when Congress enacted §1101(a)(43)(S) in 1996. I respectfully dissent.
