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Tuesday, October 20, 2026

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Supreme Court · Tuesday, October 20, 2026

Supreme Court rejects Travis McMichael's hate-crime appeal

The File desk · Oct. 20, 2026, 6:44 a.m. ET

Confirmed2 primary sources

Status

Confirmed that the Court denied review. The order list, re-opened for this edition, says certiorari is denied in . The sentence and the legal argument below are from McMichael's petition, which the crime desk read and this pass did not re-open.
  • Confirmed
    Monday's order list denies review in No. 25-7371, Travis .
  • Partially confirmed
    The life sentence, the statute, and his argument about public streets are from his petition. This pass did not re-open that PDF.
  • Unverified
    No orders were seen for co-defendants Gregory McMichael or William Bryan.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear Travis McMichael's challenge to his federal hate-crime conviction for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Glynn County, Georgia. The denial leaves that conviction in place.1
The order list line is “25-7371 McMICHAEL, TRAVIS V. UNITED STATES,” under certiorari denied. The case name on the docket is . The order list doesn't retell the crime or the sentence.1
McMichael's own petition, as the crime desk read it, says a jury convicted him under , plus attempted kidnapping and a gun count. “His federal sentence of life plus ten years runs concurrently to the sentence of life without parole that he previously received on related state charges.” He argued that neighborhood streets weren't a facility the county provided. This pass didn't re-open the petition.2
Why it matters (Estimate). McMichael was already serving life without parole on state murder charges, so Monday doesn't change how long he spends in a Georgia prison. The denial leaves a federal hate-crime law in place for violence on a public street. That is the part of the case the Court chose not to review.2
No order on this list was seen for Gregory McMichael or for William Bryan. No statement from the Arbery family was found.
How we know

Notes

  1. 1.Supreme Court order list, Oct. 19, 2026, re-opened for this edition. https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/101926zor_q8l1.pdf “CERTIORARI DENIED” includes “25-7371 McMICHAEL, TRAVIS V. UNITED STATES.” Docket: https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/25-7371.html The order list doesn't name Ahmaud Arbery.
  2. 2.Petition for a writ of certiorari, as read by the crime desk. This pass didn't re-open the file. https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/25-7371/408065/20260513173323583_Pet.%20for%20Writ%20of%20Cert.pdf Conviction under . “His federal sentence of life plus ten years runs concurrently to the sentence of life without parole that he previously received on related state charges.” His argument, in the desk's reading: neighborhood streets weren't a facility “provided or administered” by the county. Glynn County, Georgia. The killing was in 2020.

What is still unknown or disputed

  • The petition PDF wasn't re-opened on this pass. Sentence details are the crime desk's reading of it.
  • No orders were seen for Gregory McMichael or William Bryan.
  • No family or department statement on the denial was found.

Primary sources

Every claim in this story is drawn from the documents below. If a fetch failed, that is recorded on the card.

  1. Source 1

    Order list, Oct. 19, 2026

    Supreme Court of the United States · October 19, 2026

    Certiorari denied: 25-7371 McMichael, Travis v. United States.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/101926zor_q8l1.pdf

  2. Source 2 · fetch incomplete

    Petition in McMichael v. United States

    Supreme Court of the United States · May 13, 2026

    His federal sentence of life plus ten years runs concurrently to the sentence of life without parole that he previously received on related state charges.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/25-7371/408065/20260513173323583_Pet.%20for%20Writ%20of%20Cert.pdf

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