The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear Marilyn Mosby's appeal of her federal perjury convictions, closing out her options in the federal court system and immediately reviving a Maryland bar disciplinary process that could end with the former Baltimore City State's Attorney losing her law license for good.
The justices denied Mosby's petition for a writ of certiorari without issuing a written opinion, according to WMAR-2 News. The order, filed under Docket No. 25-7591, arrived on the opening day of the court's 2026-2027 term and came roughly four months after Mosby filed the petition in June 2026, following the Fourth Circuit's refusal to rehear her case, according to the Supreme Court of the United States.
With her federal appeals exhausted, the decision reactivates disciplinary proceedings before the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission, which could ultimately lead to Mosby's disbarment. As Baltimore Brew reports, Maryland's high court had ruled 4-2 in 2024 to delay any license discipline until all federal appellate reviews concluded — a hold that expired the moment the justices turned Mosby away.
What Mosby Argued to the Justices
In her petition, Mosby's defense team argued that the language on CARES Act retirement withdrawal forms regarding adverse financial consequences was fundamentally ambiguous, contending that reasonable people could interpret the condition differently, the Baltimore Sun's reporting on the filing indicates. The argument targeted the legal foundation of the perjury charges tied to two early withdrawals she made from her Baltimore City retirement account in 2020 under pandemic hardship rules.
Prosecutors had shown that Mosby earned her full $247,955 annual city salary throughout 2020 even as she withdrew a combined $90,000 from the retirement account while falsely certifying financial hardship, per reporting examined by AP News. The federal record demonstrated she suffered no salary reduction or financial loss during the pandemic, undercutting the hardship certifications at the center of the case.
A Partial Win That Didn't Survive
Mosby's legal fortunes weren't entirely one-sided. In July 2025, a 2-1 panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated her separate mortgage fraud conviction along with the forfeiture of her Longboat Key, Florida condo, finding the trial court had given jurors an erroneous instruction on venue. Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote for the majority that jurors were incorrectly told prosecutors did not need to prove the crime occurred in Maryland, according to AP News. But that same panel left her perjury convictions standing, and Monday's Supreme Court denial means those convictions are now final.
At her May 2024 sentencing, U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby rejected federal prosecutors' request for 20 months in prison, instead ordering 12 months of home confinement and 100 hours of community service as part of three years of supervised release. The Maryland Daily Record's account of the hearing notes that Griggsby cited mitigating factors, including that Mosby had used her own money rather than public funds. Mosby completed her home detention in June 2025.
Defense Strategy Shifts to the State Bar
Mosby's attorney, Tiffany Alston, said following the Supreme Court's order that the defense intends to present mitigating evidence to the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission in hopes of securing a disciplinary outcome short of disbarment, the same AP News account states. Mosby herself vowed in a statement to keep fighting to protect her law license.
The case traces back to a municipal inquiry Mosby requested herself. In 2020, she asked the Baltimore City Inspector General's Office to review her travel expenses and her private consulting firm, an internal probe that was later turned over to federal authorities and eventually led to her January 2022 federal indictment, according to WBAL.
From City Hall to Federal Court
Mosby served two terms as Baltimore City State's Attorney, from January 2015 to January 2023, and was the youngest elected top prosecutor of a major American city when she took office. She drew national attention in May 2015 after charging six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, according to Capital B's background reporting, before losing her 2022 Democratic primary re-election bid to Ivan Bates.
Since completing home detention, Mosby has worked as managing director of Mahogany Elite Enterprises and its trade names — the same business entity the city inspector general's office examined at the start of the saga, per Baltimore Brew's reporting. Hoodline previously reported on the license hold that the Maryland Supreme Court granted Mosby while her federal appeals played out, a hold that effectively ends with this week's Supreme Court denial.
Mosby has maintained her innocence throughout the case. What comes next rests with the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission, which must now decide whether her conduct warrants disbarment or a lesser sanction that would let her keep practicing law in the state.
