The pen may indeed be mightier than the sword, but the power of spoken words should also be part of the equation. For Infowars founder and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, the ones he spoke about the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting have run out of options to keep him from putting his money where his mouth went.
On October 14, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) turned away Jones’ appeal of a Connecticut state court ruling. The default judgment was imposed after he repeatedly refused to supply court-ordered discovery information in the aftermath of a defamation lawsuit loss against the family members of the Sandy Hook victims and an FBI agent. The following trial saw the Sandy Hook families awarded $1.4 billion in damages against Jones and Free Speech Systems, Infowars’ parent company.
Jones’ 250-page writ of certiorari did its best to paint him as a victim who had been stripped of his constitutional rights and handed a “punitive Administrative Death Penalty Sanction” for “expressing his opinions.” Some of his theories alleged that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that claimed the lives of 20 children and six adults, could have been a “staged hoax.” With a Hail Mary stay from SCOTUS to halt the enforcement of the defamation judgment no longer a possibility, an August 2025 ruling on the turnover of his assets in a Texas court can proceed.
For Ratings and To Sell Diet Supplements
While most of the country reeled and went into mourning after the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, Alex Jones took a much different approach on his Infowars media outlet. Jones offered his millions of listeners the unsubstantiated theory that the shooting was a hoax carried out by “crisis actors” faking emotional distress in the employ of the Obama administration to help impose stricter gun control laws. He urged his followers to investigate the possible false claims, which led to the families of the Sandy Hook victims receiving death threats, rape threats, and other forms of constant harassment, including claims that their murdered children had never really existed.
Fifteen of the families became plaintiffs in a lawsuit in 2018, alleging defamation and other claims against Jones and his company. Jones claimed his speech was protected by the First Amendment and that his words were taken out of context. In October 2022, juries in Texas and Connecticut returned verdicts awarding plaintiffs over $1.4 billion, which included punitive damages. The Texas trial included an infamous moment when it was revealed that Jones’ attorney had accidentally sent texts to the plaintiffs’ attorneys that implicated Jones for perjury and failed to claw them back.
In the aftermath of the successful lawsuits, Jones filed for bankruptcy protection. He has yet to pay any amount of the settlements against him, but SCOTUS’s snub may soon change that.
Time To Start Carving Up the Pie
Jones’ failure to obtain a stay from SCOTUS means that his assets will be turned over to Gregory S. Milligan of HMP Advisory Holdings in Texas for liquidation and distribution to the plaintiffs in the defamation lawsuits. This includes bankruptcy auctions that include the Infowars media company. In a previous auction, Infowars was won on a bid by the satirical publication The Onion, but a bankruptcy judge ruled last year that the process had been unfair and the selling price was too low. The Onion has vowed to try again if a Texas court judge fails to overturn that ruling.
Out of legal options and with his empire under the control of the courts, he appears to have no intention of going quietly. His media empire may be getting chopped up, but he’s still offering his opinions through podcasts.
Related Resources
- Petitioning and Opposing Certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court (FindLaw’s Litigation and Disputes)
- Is Alex Jones Legally Done For? - Part 1 (FindLaw’s Courtside)
- Libel, Slander, and Defamation Law: The Basics (FindLaw’s Torts and Personal Injury Law)
