Supreme Court of Georgia gives opinion on W. McCall Calhoun's law license

Supreme Court of Georgia gives opinion on W. McCall Calhoun’s law license

Published 8:36 am Thursday, March 5, 2026

McCall Calhoun has been waiting for a decision on his law license for some time. His license was initially suspended after he entered the Capitol on Jan. 6. He was charged with a felony and four misdemeanors after the riot. Calhoun fought the felony charge in court and won, and President Donald Trump pardoned the four misdemeanors.

While the Georgia Bar accepted Calhoun’s offer to submit to voluntary discipline in the form of a public reprimand, the Georgia Supreme Court, which would have had to give its approval, declined.

The unanimous decision by the Justices of the Supreme Court of Georgia reads, “If Calhoun was as involved as his posts indicate, then it is hard for us to see how anything less than disbarment can be accepted here. Accordingly, we reject the petition for voluntary discipline and remand this matter for further proceedings.”

Calhoun addressed the original reason for his suspension. “I was suspended because I was convicted of a felony, and I won the felony on the merits in the Eastern Circuit Court of Appeals, where my judgment was vacated, and the Court of Appeals ordered the indictment to be dismissed.”

He believes that his posts are the main reason the court has chosen not to reinstate him, which he describes as satire. “The only thing that’s left is basically pure political speech.”

The opinion by the Georgia Supreme Court, which is subject to modification from motions of reconsideration, or the Court’s reconsideration, quoted a post made by Calhoun after entering the Capitol: “kicked in Nancy Pelosi’s office door and pushed down the hall towards her inner sanctum, the mob howling with rage- Crazy Nancy probably would have been torn into little pieces, but she was nowhere to be seen- then a swat [sic] team showed, and we retreated back to the rotunda and continued our hostile take over of the Capitol Building.” The document does leave out part of the original post by Calhoun, which stated, “The first of us who got upstairs kicked in Nancy Pelosi’s office door.”

Calhoun compared his culpability for the actions of some during the Capitol riot to those present at a football game that gets out of hand. “You’re not responsible for what everybody else does.”

When asked how someone would identify the post he made in the wake of the Capitol riot as satire, given its militant nature, Calhoun insists that it was not meant to be taken literally. He pointed to his use of 19th-century military jargon and exaggeration as elements that he considered satirical. “Speech is not criminal, unless you make a threat to somebody.”

Calhoun argues that the post was not interpreted as a legal threat. “If I’d made a death threat to anybody, I’d been charged with terroristic threats.”

Calhoun gave his motive behind the post as an attempt to mock the left. He also believes that if the post is the deciding factor behind disbarment, the consequences of the decision could affect the legal profession as a whole. “If I’m punished for my political speech, then that’s going to set a precedent that lawyers can be punished for their political speech.”

Calhoun gave another description of the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6. “I didn’t see any property damage done. I saw a couple of broken windows after the fact. I didn’t see anybody aggressively assaulting police officers.” He did note that he saw young men shaking a barricade, and police officers grabbing people who tried to walk past.

Calhoun says that he felt at liberty to write the post because everything he did was captured on video. “When you enter the Capitol, you’re on video the whole time, and I knew that.”

Calhoun says that he only walked into the Capitol, and the post can’t be used to judge his actions. “It wasn’t meant to be taken literally, and I knew that it couldn’t be taken literally.”