In brief
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to entertain Alex Jones' petition to overturn a nearly $1.5 billion defamation judgment stemming from his assertions that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax. This decision upholds the judgment from 2022 that orders Jones to compensate the families affected by the tragedy. His attempt to sell his Infowars media company as part of the payout ultimately failed, and he has not made any payments to the victims' families to date.
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a request from right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to overturn the nearly $1.5 billion (£1.1 billion) defamation judgment against him.
Jones was ordered to make the payout in 2022 for claiming the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School - which killed 20 schoolchildren and six educators - was a hoax.
In order to make that payout, Jones was being forced to sell his Infowars media company to the satirical news site The Onion. He told the highest U.S. court that the sale would cause irreparable harm to him and his audience of 30 million.
Jones has not yet paid any of the damages he owes Sandy Hook families.
The Supreme Court did not explain its decision to deny his request.
Jones’s lawyers had made a free speech argument - that he should have the same protections under the First Amendment of the Constitution that journalists have. And Jones argued the financial consequences were too steep.
The result is a financial death penalty by fiat imposed on a media defendant whose broadcasts reach millions, he told the Supreme Court in the appeal.
Chris Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, said in a statement that the 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.
While The Onion's attempt to buy Infowars was rejected by a bankruptcy judge last year, Infowars could soon be up for sale again, giving The Onion another chance.
Legal pressure against Jones has been mounting since he was found liable by two juries for defamation and emotional distress over his lies about the Sandy Hook school shooting.
After the first verdict in Connecticut, Jones filed for bankruptcy protection in Texas, and Infowars was put up for auction to pay the Sandy Hook families, who had sued to collect on the judgment.
During Texas court proceedings, Jones acknowledged the attack was 100% real after previously claiming it was staged as part of a government plot to take guns from Americans.
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