Supreme Court Rules Against Roy Moore in Fight Over $8.2 Million Jury Award [View all]

Source: New York Times

Supreme Court Rules Against Roy Moore in Fight Over $8.2 Million Jury Award

The former Alabama Supreme Court justice and Senate candidate had asked the court to clear a path for him to potentially collect a jury award in a defamation case.

June 29, 2026, 12:31 p.m. ET


Roy Moore ran for U.S. Senate in Alabama in a special election in 2017. Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an emergency request by Roy Moore, the former Alabama Supreme Court justice who lost a Senate race in 2017 after he was accused of sexual misconduct, blocking Mr. Moore from collecting an $8.2 million defamation verdict over a campaign ad run against him in that race.

The decision kept in place a unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which in April erased a jury’s verdict that Mr. Moore had been defamed by a Democratic group’s television ad.

Mr. Moore’s request was denied by Justice Clarence Thomas, who is assigned to handle emergency applications from that region of the country. ... The ruling gave no reasoning, as is typical in such emergency orders.

This is likely not the last time the Supreme Court will deal with Mr. Moore’s issue. His lawyers said Mr. Moore also planned to ask the Supreme Court to rule more permanently on the merits of his case but that they had asked for more immediate temporary emergency relief as well.

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Abbie VanSickle covers the United States Supreme Court for The Times. She is a lawyer and has an extensive background in investigative reporting.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/29/us/politics/supreme-court-roy-moore.html