obstruction
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 362 U.S. 482 - United States v. Republic Steel Corp. · 1960Most cited · 597 citing opinions
Rivers and Harbors Act §10
It is not a prohibition of any obstruction to the navigation, but any obstruction to the navigable capacity, and anything, wherever done or however done, within the limits of the jurisdiction of the United States, which tends to destroy the navigable capacity of one of the navigable waters of the United States, is within the terms of the prohibition.
How often courts cite the cases defining “obstruction”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “obstruction” — 1,107 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 2 definitions, chronological · 1945–1960
- ORIGINAL
All perjured relevant testimony is at war with justice, since it may produce a judgment not resting on truth. Therefore it cannot be denied that it tends to defeat the sole ultimate objective of a trial. It need not necessarily, however, obstruct or halt the judicial process. For the function of trial is to sift the truth from a mass of contradictory evidence, and to do so the fact finding tribunal must hear both truthful and false witnesses. ... [T]here must be added to the essential elements of perjury under the general law the further element of obstruction to the Court in the performance of its duty.
contempt power