Plaintiffs suing radio show host Alex Jones and his website Infowars are clearing a major litigation hurdle, but they have a long road ahead—all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if the defendants get their way.

Mark Bankston, partner in Farrar & Ball in Houston, is handling four cases in which trial courts have allowed claims to survive dismissal under the Texas Citizens Participation Act, a law that dismisses SLAPP lawsuits, or strategic lawsuits against public participation. Austin's appellate court has allowed two of those rulings to stand, while another case is pending review and a fourth matter is on its way up.

Four Texas Cases

Three of Houston lawyer Mark Bankstons' cases involve parents whose children died in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Alex Jones and Infowars have maintained for years that the shooting was a hoax and the children who died and parents who mourned them were actors.

Another case, Fontaine v. Jones, involves a man suing Jones and Infowars for publishing his photo as the gunman in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.