Sandy Hook Parents Can Sue Alex Jones for Defamation, Court Rules

The parents of the children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting got the green light to sue conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Friday. The Texas Supreme Court ruled that the parents' defamation case against Jones for calling the tragedy a "giant hoax" is permissible, according to a report by PEOPLE.

Jones has faced backlash for years for his coverage of the attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 20 first-grade students and 6 educators were murdered in December of 2012. Jones' web show, Info Wars — which carried many of the trappings of a legitimate news broadcast, especially at that time — was one of the biggest mouthpieces of conspiracy theories about the shooting. Jones claimed that it was a "false flag" operation planned by anti-gun lobbyists in order to sway public opinion towards gun law reform.

No evidence for Jones' theories ever emerged, but they did further disrupt the lives of parents who had just lost their children to a senseless massacre. The lawsuits against him were first filed in April of 2018, in Texas where Jones and InfoWars.com are both based.

The parents are represented by Mark D. Bankston of Kaster, Lynch, Farrar and Ball in Houston, Texas. The attorney told PEOPLE that although Jones has spoken about Sandy Hook a lot over the years, these lawsuits "seek to address specific accusations made by Mr. Jones and InfoWars in 2017 that our clients were participants in a sinister cover-up at Sandy Hook."

Not only did Jones' commentary distress the grieving parents, but it also led some of Jones' viewers to harass them. Veronique De La Rosa told PEOPLE that he and his wife "live with a grief that will never heal, the loss of our son who had just turned 6 at the time of the shooting. Alex Jones, who profited off of defaming us and inciting others to harass and terrorize my family, continues to use legal wrangling to avoid being held accountable. The Texas Supreme Court's ruling moves us one step closer to justice."

Jones and his lawyers have worked tirelessly to get lower courts to dismiss the lawsuits against him, but they have repeatedly failed. He also maintains that his commentary on the shooting is protected by his First Amendment rights, but he has changed his tone over time. In March of 2019, he was filmed in a deposition where he said that he no longer believes the shooting was staged.

"I, myself, have almost had like a form of psychosis back in the past where I basically thought everything was staged, even though I'm now learning a lot of times things aren't staged," he said. It is not clear when Jones and the families will be in court.