The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the case of a St. Louis couple who are fighting to keep their law licenses after being penalized for brandishing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters passing by their home in summer 2020.
It’s one of multiple updates from the Supreme Court this morning, which also includes opinions on cases involving interstate commerce and Medicaid.
Notably absent were the high court’s much-awaited decisions on abortion rights in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health and another in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which could see the conservative-majority court drastically expand the right to conceal carry firearms. Those opinions are expected to come later this month.
Mark and Patricia McCloskey are personal injury attorneys who made headlines two years ago for waving their weapons at demonstrators who entered their gated community to protest outside of the mayor’s home.
They claimed at the time to have been defending their home but later pled guilty to misdemeanor charges of assault and harassment, respectively. The couple was pardoned by Missouri’s Republican Governor Mike Parson in August last year.
The state Supreme Court suspended their law licenses indefinitely earlier this year, agreeing with a petition from Missouri’s chief disciplinary council that they acted out of ‘moral turpitude’ and with an ‘indifference for public safety.’
However the court also issued a stay and one-year probation on the suspensions.
Mark and Patricia McCloskey are Missouri-based personal injury attorneys who are at risk of losing their law licenses
It comes after they pled guilty to misdemeanors stemming from an infamous June 2020 incident in which they brandished weapons at peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters passing their home
In order to keep their law licenses, the McCloskeys were ordered to provide 100 hours of free legal service.
They’re also required to provide the court with quarterly updates on any arrests or convictions, as well as civil lawsuits filed against them.
The McCloskeys fought the ruling by petitioning the US Supreme Court to hear their case late last month.
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They argued that their handling of weapons that day in front of peaceful protesters was ‘protected by the Second and Fourteenth Amendments’ and therefore ‘cannot and should not constitute conduct involving’ moral turpitude, as the court ruled.
The couple said in court documents that they were ‘exercising lawful rights to bear arms in defense of their person, family, and home.’
Mark McCloskey was pictured brandishing a rifle while his wife Patricia McCloskey held a handgun, both pointed in the direction of peaceful protesters.
It came amid nationwide demonstrations over the killing of black Minneapolis resident George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer.
The Supreme Court issued several updated today, though it still has not formally weighed in on highly-anticipated decisions about abortion and gun rights
They had initially claimed that protesters destroyed the barrier to their gated community for entry, though video evidence has shown activists marching through an in-tact iron gate.
The incident rocketed them to national prominence among conservatives.
The couple was invited to speak at the 2020 Republican National Convention and shared their story multiple times with Fox News.
Mark McCloskey even launched a bid for the US Senate this year, vying for the seat being vacated by outgoing GOP Senator Roy Blunt.
He cited the infamous run-in with demonstrators when discussing his decision to run for Congress on Tucker Carlson Tonight earlier this year.
‘I’ve always been a Republican, but I have never been a politician,’ Mark McCloskey said at the time.
‘But you know, God came knocking on my door last summer disguised as an angry mob, and it really did wake me up.’
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