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Criminal Venue In The Federal Courts: The Obstruction Of Justice Puzzle, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Courts have struggled to determine venue for cases involving obstruction of justice with similarly inconsistent results. The circuits have divided over where to lay venue in prosecutions for obstruction of justice when the defendant allegedly acted in one judicial district to obstruct a proceeding that was pending in another. This Note argues that formalistic analysis, which has led courts to set venue in the district of the affected trial, should be rejected in favor of a more policy-oriented approach. Part I demonstrates that a formalistic statutory analysis that closely inspects either legislative history or the language of the statute ultimately …