Fish Tale: Supreme Court and the Missing Grouper

WASHINGTON (AP) — Did the federal government go overboard when it prosecuted a Florida fisherman for throwing undersized grouper off his boat?

Commercial fishing boat captain John Yates says he was wrongly convicted of destroying evidence — namely the fish — under a law passed in the wake of the Enron accounting scandal that was meant to stop financial documents from being shredded.

The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Wednesday in a case that critics have derided as a prime example of government overreach.

The Obama administration says it's simply enforcing the plain language of a law that prohibits destruction of "any tangible object" during a federal investigation.

Yates was convicted of destroying three fish he had caught that were under the minimum legal size permitted in the Gulf of Mexico.

(Story by: Sam Hananel, The Associated Press)