The Georgia Supreme Court just went (Seinfeld) Soup Disbarment Nazi on William McCall Calhoun Jr., a convicted Jan. 6 rioter. Calhoun’s punishments included an 18 month prison sentence. Calhoun was an attorney when he went to DC to take part in the riot. Like others he assumed he’d get away with his crimes. He didn’t. His conviction cost him his law license so he tried to get it back. In a blistering ruling the state’s Supreme Court said NO FREAKING WAY. Sometimes, if not often enough these days justice does prevail.
Calhoun is a nasty piece of work. Although this article from The Hill doesn’t provide any details about his law practice or how successful he was as a lawyer it does delve into his having been a member of the Georgia Bar and how/why he lost his license. Disbarred. That had to hurt, even if his practice was a modest one. After being admitted to the Bar in 1990 he spent a few years as a public defender before setting up a general legal practice in his hometown of Americus, a town of roughly sixteen thousand people. For years he was considered a progressive Democrat. He tried and failed to win elected office as a Democrat and even supported Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Clearly, something changed. He went from being a “hard core progressive” who’d criticize and even cuss out old friends for voting for Trump turned into a MAGA himself. Apparently gun control/the 2nd Amendment was the reason for his conversion. It seems the way he advocated led to him being called a White Supremacist and/or racist and he became a Trump guy. He hated Biden and by 2020 was ready and willing to raise hell at the Capitol for Trump. He bragged about having plenty of weapons and ammo which thankfully he left home.
However Calhoun enthusiastically took part in the insurrection. He even made it all the way to Pelosi’s office, and lamented she wasn’t there. In fact he was quite vocal on social media during and after the riot.
After the 2020 election, Calhoun made no secret of his sentiments. “When Trump makes the call, millions of heavily armed, pissed off patriots are coming to Washington.”
“I have tons of ammo,” he wrote. “Gonna use it too — at the range and on racist democrat communists.”
Calhoun wisely left his guns at home when he traveled to Washington, D.C. to act out his belief that “the election was stolen.” As the Jan. 6. riot unfolded, with alarms blaring, Calhoun was among the first to enter the Capitol through a broken door. He was captured on video saying, “This is it. We’re storming the Capitol.” Another video showed him with rioters “who pounded on doors and walls as they passed by members’ offices,” with Calhoun saying they were “looking for people.”
After the riot Calhoun bragged on FB about ‘taking the Capitol’, forcing the police to ‘retreat’, and vowing to return to DC ‘armed for war.’ WTF? Well, it didn’t take long until he was arrested – without incident. Tried and convicted. Lawyers hate sanctioning other lawyers but no state Bar will allow someone convicted of four misdemeanors and a felony that carried a conviction of 18 months in prison to keep their law license. Yes, the felony conviction was set aside but the four misdemeanors stayed on his record. I also would like to remind readers of something I’ve written about before: Acceptance of a pardon means accepting guilt for the crime(s) for which one gets pardoned for committing. There are two SCOTUS precedents backing up the legal doctrine and practicalities. (That last part is a longer topic)
That leads us to Trump getting back into the WH and Calhoun being part of that infamous blanket pardon. A lot of Georgia attorneys including some key ones (at the state Bar) decided he’d been punished enough. That he should get to start practicing law again. Calhoun’s petition argued a public reprimand was sufficient ‘punishment.’ Incredibly, the state Bar disciplinary counsel supported it. So did a Special Master. Again I say WTF? Fortunately the Georgia State Supreme Court held otherwise:
“Pardons do not prevent disbarment for the underlying activity that formed the basis of the crime,” said the court. Thus, Trump’s pardon did not erase Calhoun’s “criminal act,” which reflected adversely on his “fitness as a lawyer.”
Most significant were Calhoun’s social media posts, “which clearly suggest that he intended to participate, willingly and knowingly, in a violent takeover of the Capitol to overturn the 2020 election and that he sought to interfere with the administration of justice.”
Then they nailed the lid shut on the coffin of Calhoun’s legal career:
The Georgia court found it “hard … to see how anything less than disbarment can be accepted.”
The Hill’s article suggest the Georgia Supremes have laid down a marker. Provided a model for other states around the country. Only some of the attorney’s who took active part in Trump’s attempt to overthrow a free and fair election have suffered much in the way of consequences, much less Disbarment. However with renewed focus on Georgia and Trump’s inability to let go of having LOST it to Joe Biden this crap with Calhoun might get noticed. MORE lawyers should be disbarred, and of those who have been their respective Bar Associations should refuse to reinstate them. They set an example:
The Republican-led state Supreme Court has now exemplified the same integrity by disregarding Trump’s blanket pardons and recognizing the true nature of the Jan. 6 attack. It was not a “day of love” or a “normal tourist visit,” or even a “political protest that got out of hand.”
Jan. 6 was an insurrection, and insurrectionists will not be practicing law in Georgia any time soon.
So no, Calhoun won’t get to go back to how things were before. Also, he might want to brush up on the law about pardons that I mentioned earlier. If he commits another crime every charge he was pardoned for will be taken into account AGAINST him when sentencing time comes!
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
Nice reminder that pardons do not let people off the hook for what they’ve done.
They take away the punishment but solidify the guilt.
Good lawyers know this.