What Is A Fish? And the Supreme Court’s Surprising Answer
Legal commentator Verity Winship University of Illinois College of Law
What is a fish? The U.S. Supreme Court addressed this important question in its recent opinion in Yates v. United States. After a routine inspection, a commercial fisherman threw undersized fish overboard. He was criminally convicted for knowingly destroying a “tangible object” to obstruct a federal investigator. Is a fish a tangible object? The Supreme Court’s surprising answer – and what is at stake beyond fish – is the subject of this radio commentary.