The Supreme Court has declined to consider an appeal by a couple from St. Louis who may be facing an indefinite suspension of their licenses after they waved guns during one of the racial justice protests outside their home in 2020. The couple was pardoned last year, but that does not remove potential consequences regarding law licenses.
Related video: McCloskey’s get pardoned…
Mark McCloskey, who is a personal injury attorney and Republican candidate for the United States Senate in Missouri, and his wife, Patricia McCloskey, have gained national attention after they marched into their front yard with firearms during a protest against the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The protesters were then seen marching toward the St. Louis mayor’s home, said report.
They both pleaded guilty. Mark McCloskey pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and Patricia McCloskey pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment. They were eventually pardoned by Missouri Governor Michael Parson in 2021, but the state office in charge of investigating allegations of attorney misconduct has been seeking to suspend their licenses.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled in February that the licenses could be suspended indefinitely, but it stayed the suspensions and then placed the pair of attorneys on probation for one year. The conditions of the probation called for the McCloskey couple to provide reports to a probation monitor every quarter – this included if they were charged with additional crimes – and 100 hours of free legal services.
As part of their appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, the McCloskeys have argued that the decision of the state court violated their Second Amendment rights and their due process rights because they were in the process of “exercising the legal right to bear arms in defense of their person, family and home.”
Mark McCloskey is one of several Republican candidates in line to fill the seat being held by the outgoing GOP Senator Roy Blunt.
Just last year, the McCloskey’s were pardoned following the incident in which they stood outside their homes with weapons as protesters marched by.
They’re most famous for having a standoff in front of their home with trespassing Black Lives Matter protesters, while they held guns.
It was Republican Governor Michael Parson, of Missouri, who pardoned the gun-toting pair of all crimes related to the standoff that happened when the BLM protesters trespassed their their private neighborhood, and the McCloskey’s stood outside with guns.
The reason they stood outside with guns is likely because of all the videos we’ve seen where protests turn into riots and buildings are destroyed, people are hurt, and it’s complete chaos.
Photo: screencap from Newsy video on YouTube.