United States Supreme Court

In this case, petitioner Yates was a ship captain who was found by a federal agent to have caught undersized red grouper fish in violation of federal conservation regulations and instructed by the federal agent to keep the fish segregated until the ship returned to port. Instead, Yates told a crew member to throw the undersized fish overboard. Yates was thereafter convicted of impeding a federal investigation by knowingly altering, destroying, mutilating, concealing, covering up, falsifying, or making a false entry in any record, document, or "tangible object" in violation of 18 U.S.C. section 1519, and was also convicted under section 2232(a) for destroying or removing property to prevent seizure. Yates does not contest his section 2232(a) conviction, but he maintains that fish are not trapped within the term "tangible object," as that term is used in section 1519. The judgment is reversed and the case is remanded, where a "tangible object" within the meaning of section 1519 is one used to record or preserve information, and fish do not meet such criteria.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/25/2015
• Published 02/25/2015

Judges

• Ginsburg

Court

• United States Supreme Court

Counsel