Parents of children killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on December 14, 2012 won a libel suit yesterday (June 17, 2019) against the authors of a book that claimed it never happened.
It was a victory for parents who have been besieged with hate mail and death threats from alt-right conspiracy theorists and hoaxers. A similar lawsuit against Alex Jones and his program “InfoWars” is still being contested in court. New York Magazine had a good overview of the basic issues in Sept. 2016.
The question in law is whether public figures like the Sandy Hook parents can recover for expressions of opinion, and whether it is a matter of fact or opinion to say that no children were killed at Sandy Hook and that parents are part of a left-wing conspiracy. First Amendment Watch has a good set of resources and a law student’s guide to the issues.
