Attorney Andrew Bizer plans to appeal the Louisiana Supreme Court's failure to toss out a lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled that Lafayette Consolidated Government’s (LCG) lawsuit can move forward against a comedian who posted a pair of fake “Antifa” events on Facebook in 2020.
New York comedian John Merrifield posted two parody events on Facebook in July 2020, which included “ANTIFA Takes River Ranch” and a second posting centered on the Acadiana Mall.
"They just declined to hear the case without any analysis or anything, just like the Court of Appeals did," Bizer told the Louisiana Record.
Bizer nonetheless expressed optimism that he and his client would win the case in the end on appeal.
"We definitely will win on the merits because the lawsuit's patently ridiculous," Bizer told the Louisiana Record. "It's super unfortunate though that we were not able to have it dismissed."
Bizer also expressed doubt that the lawsuit is motivated by genuine safety concerns.
“They knew the fake events were coming days in advance," Bizer told the Louisiana Record.
Merrifield told KLFY in September 2020 it was all merely a prank to promote awareness toward the excessive force being used by the city government in the Trayford Pellerin shooting and the closure of a number of recreation centers on Lafayette’s northside in 2020. Lafayette police responded to the staged event. Prior to the Supreme Court decision, the Louisiana’s Third Circuit Court of Appeal upheld the lawsuit in March.
Bizer and Merrifield had previously tried to get the lawsuit tossed out on the basis of Louisiana's anti-SLAPP law, which is designed to protect citizens from punitive lawsuits. The damages being sought against Merrifield are said to be below $75,000. The state alleged that this is in response to the cost of first respondents being sent to the scene and the potentiality of violence being incited while Bizer and Merrifield argued that the decision was not based on criminal law.