The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that someone can obstruct justice even if an official investigation has not yet been opened -- a decision that makes it easier to deport some immigrants with criminal records.
The court was reviewing two cases involving legal immigrants convicted of witness tampering and accessory after the fact, and whom the government wanted to deport under a law that makes even legal immigrants removable if they obstructed justice.
“Individuals can obstruct the process of justice even when an investigation or proceeding is not pending,” he wrote. “For example, a murderer may threaten to kill a witness if the witness reports information to the police. Such an act is no less obstructive merely because the government has yet to catch on and begin an investigation.”
In this case, federal law says legal immigrants can be deported if they have committed an aggravated felony. Among the list of aggravated felonies are offenses “relating to obstruction of justice.” “The Court’s broad interpretation of ‘obstruction of justice,’ which swallows up all witness tampering, cannot be reconciled with this statutory text,” she wrote in a dissent joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Neil M. Gorsuch.
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