Newswise — The Supreme Court is now in its final weeks with almost two dozen cases still undecided. One of those cases still in limbo includes an upcoming ruling on the validity of obstruction charges against hundreds of people who participated in the January 6th insurrection. This charge has been brought against more than 300 people, including former President Donald Trump.
If you would like more context on this matter, please consider Jon Lewis, a research fellow at the GW Program on Extremism. He studies domestic violent extremism and homegrown violent extremism, with a specialization in the evolution of white supremacist and anti-government movements in the United States and federal responses to the threat. Lewis is the co-author of two major Program reports on the events of January 6th, as well as numerous long form publications on the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and their role in the events of January 6th.
In addition, Lewis manages the Program's Capitol Hill Siege database, which is a public tracker for all federal cases stemming from J6 participation.
Lewis says there could be a narrow ruling that preserves the charge to sum extend while still ruling in favor of the defendants. However, Lewis says this case is far less about what this ruling could mean for individual cases, but rather what message this ruling sends.
“It tells the average American once again that this is permissible, that the laws that we currently have maybe don’t adequately cover the real nature of terrorism and violent extremism at this point in time,” Lewis says.
WATCH: Hear more from Jon Lewis on the implications of this case in this video here.
If you would like to speak to Jon Lewis, please contact GW Senior Media Relations Specialist Cate Douglass at [email protected].
-GW-
RSS