In 2022, a court ruled that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay $1.4 billion to the families affected by the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, an event he falsely claimed was staged.
The United States Supreme Court recently declined to review Alex Jones’s appeal against a $1.4 billion judgment awarded to the families of victims from the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut. Jones, founder of the Infowars website, had propagated the baseless claim that the tragedy was fabricated.
This decision by the nation’s highest court was announced on Tuesday, effectively upholding the ruling from the Connecticut Appellate Court. That court had affirmed the majority of a 2022 defamation verdict in favor of 14 relatives of the children and staff who lost their lives, as well as an FBI agent who responded to the shooting. By refusing to hear the appeal, the Supreme Court left the substantial judgment intact.
The tragic event involved the deaths of 26 individuals-20 students and six school employees-at the hands of a 20-year-old former student who subsequently took his own life.
Jones contended that the judgment infringed upon his constitutional rights, specifically citing due process and free speech protections. His appeal to the Supreme Court described the $1.4 billion award as the largest libel judgment in U.S. history.
In addition to the Connecticut case, Jones lost a related defamation lawsuit in Texas, where the damages awarded were approximately $50 million. He is currently appealing that verdict. Following these legal defeats, Jones filed for bankruptcy.
The lawsuits stemmed from Jones’s repeated assertions that the Sandy Hook shooting was a “false flag” operation designed to promote anti-gun legislation. He also accused grieving parents of being “crisis actors” feigning sorrow during media interviews.
Throughout the legal process, Jones refused to cooperate. Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis ruled him liable for defamation, leaving the jury to determine the amount of damages. The jury awarded $965 million in compensatory damages during the trial held in Waterbury, Connecticut.
Judge Bellis then imposed an additional $473 million in punitive damages, which was later reduced to $323 million by an appeals court. Jones challenged the total $1.4 billion figure in his Supreme Court appeal.
Ongoing Legal Battles
Jones’s legal team argued that the enormous judgment is unpayable and that his personal bankruptcy cannot be used to evade the debt, as ruled by a bankruptcy court.
In his Supreme Court filing, Jones claimed the default judgment was the result of minor procedural errors and insignificant mistakes by his attorneys, which he argued led to an unjust trial.
Jones had previously petitioned the Supreme Court in 2021 to intervene after Judge Bellis sanctioned him for public comments made during the litigation, prior to the defamation ruling. That request was also denied.
Meanwhile, Jones continues to appeal the Texas verdict and is contesting a court order that could force the sale of Infowars. Additionally, he faces two more defamation lawsuits filed by other Sandy Hook families and the relatives of a man wrongly accused of involvement in the shooting. These cases have yet to proceed to trial.
