United States Of America V Yates

The issue presented is whether Section 1519 of Title 18 of the United States Code, which prohibits destruction of "any record, document, or tangible object" to impede federal investigations, prohibits destruction of ordinary physical evidence (such as the undersized red grouper caught in violation of U.S. fisheries laws at issue here) or whether the term "tangible object" therein should be narrowly construed as encompassing only objects that preserve information, such as computers, servers, or other storage devices.