When you side with the conservatives, and you've done so
just slightly more than your colleagues, Justice Elena Kagan or
Justice Sotomayor, most recently in this Fisher versus United States
case, that's the January 6th prosecution case, you agreed with
the majority that the Justice Department did improperly use its
obstruction statute.
The severity of what happened on that day is something
that you wrote about in your book.
Was that a hard decision for you to make?
I wouldn't say it was a hard decision.
And this is an example, I think, of the difference
between law and politics.
I ruled in that case consistent with what I believe
the law required, given the statute at issue, the context
in which it was enacted, the text of the statute
and its purposes.
And that's the way that I look at statutory interpretation,
regardless of, you know, what the politics might say about
the situation.