[3][4] This provision, originating from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, states that a person may be fined or imprisoned for up to 20 years if the person "knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence" a federal investigation.

[2] At trial, Yates sought an acquittal for the §1519 charge arguing that fish were not tangible objects related to record-keeping.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the conviction, holding that fish have a physical form and are therefore a tangible object under a dictionary definition.

[5] Yates' attorney, now-federal judge John Badalamenti, petitioned for a writ of certiorari, which the Supreme Court granted.

Kagan's view is that under the "ordinary meaning of the term," a tangible object in §1519 covers fish (including undersized red grouper).