The Alex Jones Verdict Is Just—But It Should Be the Exception

James Madison never met Alex Jones. This side of heaven, we'll never know whether the author of the First Amendment would've listened to Jones' outlandish radio show. But Jones now knows that James Madison's hand-crafted First Amendment umbrella protects most—though not all—speech. On Wednesday, a jury awarded the parents of the deadly Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting $1 billion in damages; Jones had called the shooting a hoax and the parents crisis actors. The verdict followed a smaller but just as significant Texas jury verdict against Jones' lies about Sandy Hook.

Jones repeatedly defended himself on First Amendment grounds, arguing that he had a free speech right to his opinion, though he was not allowed to make this defense during the trial. One day he even arrived at court with "Save the 1st" written on a piece of tape he'd used to cover his mouth, and he referred to the trial as a "constitutional-destroying, absolute and total, complete travesty."