The Supreme Court announced Tuesday it would not hear an appeal from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones over a $1.4 billion defamation judgment on his comments describing the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting as a hoax.
A state court in Connecticut issued the judgment against Mr. Jones over saying in his “Infowars” podcast that the Sandy Hook shooting, in which 20 first-graders and six teachers were slain, was staged.
He was sued by an FBI agent and relatives of the victims for his comments, claiming they were defamatory while incorrectly suggesting the government was trying to use the tragedy to seize guns.
Mr. Jones’ lawyers argued that the lower court rejected his defenses to the defamation charges. They also claimed the judgment treated the families like they were private citizens, yet they had injected themselves into public debate over the years following the 2012 school shooting.
The Jones team also took issue with the decision coming from a judge instead of from a trial.
“If this case is allowed to stand, simple entry of an administrative default judgment by a state court will become a new path to circumvent this Court’s numerous definitive holdings on the sanctity of the Freedom of Speech and Press rights embodied in the First Amendment to the Constitution,” Mr. Jones’ lawyers argued.
They said the $1.4 billion is believed to be the most in history handed down against a media personality.
It would have taken four justices to vote in favor of hearing the appeal for oral arguments to have been scheduled.
The justices did not issue a comment on their Tuesday order rejecting the case.
The case involved the Sandy Hook massacre of 13 years ago in Connecticut in which Adam Lanza killed 26 people after murdering his mother before committing suicide.
Mr. Jones filed for bankruptcy in late 2022, and his lawyers had told the justices that the “plaintiffs have no possible hope of collecting” the entire judgment.
He is separately appealing a $49 million judgment in a similar defamation lawsuit in Texas after he failed to turn over documents sought by the parents of another Sandy Hook victim.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
