Supreme Court Upholds $1.4 Billion Defamation Verdict for Sandy Hook Families Against Alex Jones

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected Alex Jones’s appeal against a defamation judgment amounting to approximately .4 billion. This decision comes after Jones was found liable for falsely declaring that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was merely a hoax.

This brief ruling effectively concludes Jones’s attempts to avoid the enormous financial penalty, which has already driven him into bankruptcy and may jeopardize the future of his Infowars broadcast.

In his appeal to the Supreme Court, Jones described the ruling as a “financial death penalty by fiat.” He argued that his statements were taken “out of context” and claimed that the judge did not sufficiently consider his First Amendment rights.

“Alex Jones is a media defendant entitled to all First Amendment freedom of the press protections,” Jones’s petition stated.

The justices, however, seemed unfazed by his arguments, as they opted not to require a response from the families involved in the case.

“The Supreme Court properly rejected Jones’s latest desperate attempt to avoid accountability for the harm he has caused. We look forward to enforcing the jury’s historic verdict and making Jones and Infowars pay for what they have done,” Chris Mattei, an attorney representing the families, said in a statement.

It keeps intact one of the largest defamation judgments in U.S. history, though it’s unclear how much the families will recover of the roughly $1.4 billion award.

Jones remains in bankruptcy, and the families have moved in recent weeks to sell assets owned by his company, Free Speech Systems. A judge recently confirmed those assets aren’t part of the bankruptcy estate and the families can pursue claims in state court.

The families have recently convinced a Texas state judge to appoint a receiver, though Jones is appealing the order.

He has warned that Infowars could be sold off to The Onion, a satirical news site. Last year, The Onion entered the winning bid in an auction to take control of Infowars, but it was blocked by the bankruptcy judge. 

“The Plaintiffs here are on the opposite side of the ideological spectrum and do not want money for their judgment,” Jones’s lawyers wrote to the justices. “Their initial motivations were to get Jones’s message off the air. But after entry of the devastating, record breaking $1,436,650,000 judgment, that motivation morphed to something more sinister.”