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Page Number: 12.0

8 

FISCHER v. UNITED STATES 

Opinion of the Court 

sible inference is that the scope of (c)(2) is defined by refer-
ence to (c)(1).

If, as the Government asserts, (c)(2) covers “all forms of
obstructive conduct beyond Section 1512(c)(1)’s focus on ev-
idence impairment,” Brief for United States 13, there would 
have been scant reason for Congress to provide any specific
examples at all.  The sweep of subsection (c)(2) would con-
sume (c)(1), leaving that narrower provision with no work 
to  do. 
Indeed,  subsection  (c)(1)  would  be  an  elaborate 
pumpfake: a list of four types of highly particularized con-
duct, performed with respect to a record, document, or ob-
ject and “with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or
availability for use in an official proceeding,” followed in the 
very next subsection—in the same sentence, no less—by a 
superseding prohibition on all means of obstructing, influ-
encing,  or  impeding  any  official  proceeding.    Construing
Section 1512 in such a way gets the “familiar” analysis we 
apply to these types of statutes “exactly backwards,” elimi-
nating specific terms because of broad language that follows 
them,  rather  than  limiting  the  broad  language  in  light  of
narrower terms that precede it.  Bissonnette, 601 U. S., at 
252, 255. 

Tethering subsection (c)(2) to the context of (c)(1) recog-
nizes the distinct purpose of each provision.  See A. Scalia 
&  B.  Garner,  Reading  Law  208  (2012)  (“evident  purpose”
helps  define  scope  of  catchall  provision).    As  we  have  ex-
plained, subsection (c)(1) refers to a defined set of offense 
conduct—four types of actions that, by their nature, impair
the  integrity  or  availability  of  records,  documents,  or  ob-
jects  for  use  in  an  official  proceeding.  When  the  phrase
“otherwise  obstructs,  influences,  or  impedes  any  official
proceeding” is read as having been given more precise con-
tent  by  that  narrower  list  of  conduct,  subsection  (c)(2)
makes  it  a  crime  to  impair  the  availability  or  integrity  of
records, documents, or objects used in an official proceeding 
in ways other than those specified in (c)(1). For example, it