Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Joseph Sullivan v. United States
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 23-927 · judgment March 13, 2025
Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.
Question presented
In several cases over the last three decades, this Court has recognized that certain obstruction-of-justice crimes carry a “nexus requirement”—the requirement that a defendant’s conduct have the “natural and probable effect” of obstructing a proceeding and that the defendant know that his conduct will have that effect. The courts of appeals have adopted this requirement for a host of additional obstruction provisions, and trial courts routinely instruct juries that they must find a nexus to convict. The Second and Seventh Circuits have both recognized that 18 U.S.C. § 1505, which criminalizes obstruction of “a proceeding … before a [U.S.] department or agency,” carries the nexus requirement on which a jury must be properly instructed. But the Ninth Circuit holds that § 1505 carries no nexus requirement and it affirmed the conviction here despite no nexus instruction. The question presented is: Does 18 U.S.C. § 1505 carry the requirement, on which a jury must be instructed, that the defendant’s conduct have a nexus to an agency proceeding?
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Christopher Jason Cariello
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
For respondent
D. John Sauer
Solicitor General
Proceedings
- Jun 29 2026Petition DENIED.
- Jun 09 2026DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 6/25/2026.
- Jun 08 2026Reply of petitioner Joseph Sullivan filed. (Distributed)
- May 26 2026Brief of respondent United States in opposition filed.
- May 08 2026Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including May 26, 2026.
- May 06 2026Motion to extend the time to file a response from May 15, 2026 to May 26, 2026, submitted to The Clerk.
- Apr 13 2026Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including May 15, 2026.
- Apr 10 2026Motion to extend the time to file a response from April 15, 2026 to May 15, 2026, submitted to The Clerk.
- Mar 12 2026Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due April 15, 2026)
- Jan 30 2026Application (25A853) granted by Justice Kagan extending the time to file until March 12, 2026.
- Jan 23 2026Application (25A853) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from February 10, 2026 to March 12, 2026, submitted to Justice Kagan.