January 16, 2020
The Supreme Court’s March 2018 decision in Marinello v. United States was widely seen as a potentially significant limitation on the government’s ability to prosecute endeavors to obstruct the Internal Revenue Service under 26 U.S.C. § 7212(a). In this article, I analyze the extent to which defendants have – and have not – obtained relief under Marinello and conclude that, while the decision has been of limited value to defendants challenging convictions in cases tried before Marinello, its biggest impact may be the government’s reluctance to test § 7212(a)’s outer limits in charging decisions going forward.