Supreme Court Rejects Roy Moore’s $8.2M Verdict Appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Roy Moore's appeal seeking to restore an $8.2 million defamation verdict over a 2017 Senate race ad, leaving intact the 11th Circuit decision that vacated a 2022 jury award. Justices had also rejected his June emergency request to stay that ruling. Moore sued Senate Majority PAC over a Highway 31 ad that, his attorneys said, juxtaposed news excerpts to falsely imply he solicited sex from young girls at a mall—a "fabricated accusation, never made by any reporter" aired 533 times in the election's final days. A federal jury awarded him $8.2 million in 2022. The 11th Circuit reversed, finding he failed to prove actual malice under New York Times v. Sullivan. The PAC argued the ad was truthful. Moore's lawyers wrote that the repercussions extend far beyond this case and that if a publisher can escape a jury's verdict by accurately quoting each fragment while manufacturing a false whole, Masson's core holding is nullified for political ads. Moore lost the 2017 race to Doug Jones after Leigh Corfman said he touched her in 1979 when she was 14 and he was 32; he denied it. The decision ends his legal fight over the ad.