Mckesson argued that the officer's lawsuit violated his First Amendment rights, since he didn't explicitly encourage violence. However, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with jurisdiction over Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, let the lawsuit proceed.

The Supreme Court receives thousands of petitions for review each year. It agrees to hear only a handful of them. The rest are denied without any explanation whatsoever. Occasionally, however, one of the justices sheds some light on the court’s potential thinking about a particular case by writing a separate statement with the denial.