Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-5572_l6hn.pdf
Page Number: 35

Cite as:  603 U. S. ____ (2024) 

7 

BARRETT, J., dissenting 

the game,
“shall be suspended.” 

While the specific verbs in the first clause involve actions 
directed at an opposing player, the second clause is a sepa-
rate prohibition with an entirely different object.  Imagine
that, just before the opposing team’s kicker attempts a field
goal, players leave the sidelines and storm the field, some 
tackling referees in the process.  Those players have surely 
“interrupt[ed],  hinder[ed],  or  interfer[ed]  with  the  game,” 
even though they have not physically injured any opponent. 
This  hypothetical,  not  the  Court’s,  is  analogous  to 
§1512(c)—and it supports the Government’s interpretation. 

2 

The  Court  next  recruits  help  from  Begay,  which  inter-
prets an “otherwise” clause in the Armed Career Criminal 
Act.  Ante, at 6; 553 U. S., at 140.  The ACCA defines a “vi-
olent felony” as a felony that “is burglary, arson, or extor-
tion, involves use of explosives, or otherwise involves con-
duct  that  presents  a  serious  potential  risk  of  physical 
injury.”  18 U. S. C. §924(e)(2)(B)(ii).  Begay holds that the 
example crimes limit the catchall clause to “crimes that are
roughly similar . . . to the examples themselves.”  553 U. S., 
at 143.  So too here, the Court reasons, the list of crimes in 
(c)(1) limits the “otherwise” clause in (c)(2).

But §1512(c) is structured differently than the statute in 
Begay.  While §1512(c) contains two distinct criminal pro-
hibitions—(c)(1) and (c)(2)—the statutory definition in Be-
gay contained a list of examples followed immediately by a
residual clause.  The latter structure more readily supports
interpreting  the  general  clause  in  light  of  the  specifics, 
much like a statute to which the ejusdem canon would ap-
ply.  Moreover, the residual clause at issue in Begay called 
out  for  a  limiting  principle—what  is  a  “serious  potential
risk of physical injury?”  The breadth itself was a cue that