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The Supreme Court of the United States has rejected an appeal from InfoWars’ founder and host, Alex Jones, in a $1.4 billion defamation suit stemming from comments and claims he made about the horrific school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
This follows an emergency appeal Jones made asking for a temporary pause on a ruling that requires him to pay the massive sum for making false claims that the shooting was a hoax, according to SCOTUSblog.
The court announced this week that it would not hear Jones’ appeal.
Jones is a prominent figure in the media. Over the years, he has gained recognition and fame for his commentary and claims about world events and leaders, which some might argue take a highly conspiratorial bent.
During the 2024 election cycle, he was even interviewed by popular journalist and commentator Tucker Carlson.
According to CBS, a jury in 2022 ordered Jones to pay $965 million to the families of Sandy Hook for “defamation” and “emotional distress” linked to false claims that the terrible shooting at the school in 2012 was a “hoax” and played out by “crisis actors.”
He was later ordered to pay another $474 million in punitive damages, the outlet reported.
Following this decision, Jones filed for bankruptcy protection, and last year, a bankruptcy judge ordered that Jones’ personal assets be liquidated, per SCOTUSblog. For the time being, Jones is still operating InfoWars.
In his petition for review, Jones’ lawyers argued that his comments regarding the Sandy Hook tragedy were essentially taken out of context: “Plaintiffs seized on the single word ‘staged’ to claim that Jones was accusing the Plaintiffs—who were not named— of falsifying the murders. But the Complaint deliberately omitted what Jones said in the same broadcast: ‘I clearly believe from the evidence children are really killed in Sandy Hook and it’s a real tragedy.’”
His attorneys further argued that he has “expressly affirmed that deaths occurred, while using the phrases ‘staged’ or ‘hoax’ to characterize media and governmental scripting.”
Regardless of Jones’ arguments in this appeal, SCOTUS’s rejection of it means that he will still have to pay up, and that bankruptcy and liquidation proceedings will likely accelerate.
