In the wake of the Josh Duggar sex scandals, the perpetrator’s famous family lashed out in every direction, desperately seeking a way to blame anyone other than Josh.
This meant giving interviews in which the blame was placed on the police department that released Josh’s records, and of course, on the tabloid that first broke the story that nearly destroyed the Duggars.
Back in May of 2015, In Touch magazine was the first to report that Josh had molested five young girls, four of whom were his sisters, and was assisted in covering up his crimes by his parents.
Several of the older Duggar sisters sued the magazine’s publisher, Bauer Media Group, claiming that the company violated victim protection laws by publishing police reports without redacting the Duggar name.
(The victims were not named in the published documents, but the Duggars argued that it would be easy to deduce the identities of the victims based on the information provided.)
Josh Duggar attempted to join his sisters’ lawsuit, but was rebuffed by their legal team.
Eventually, Josh filed his own lawsuit against In Touch, seeking $75,000 in damages and arguing that the magazine had criminally impinged upon his privacy.
On Friday, both cases were thrown out by U.S. District Judge Tim Brooks, who decreed that In Touch was well within its First Amendment rights to publish the information contained in the police reports.
"Even if one assumes that the disclosure failed to comply with Arkansas statutory redaction requirements, it is clear that the Bauer defendants cannot be held liable, for the city’s and county’s failure to follow the law,” Brooks wrote in his ruling.
The Duggar girls named several other parties in their suit, including the City of Springdale, Arkansas, Washington County, and several city officials, who they claim were responsible for the release of their information.
While Brooks dismissed most of the defendants, the Duggars’ claims against a few parties, including former Springdale Police Chief Kathy O’Kelley, were allowed to remain active.
Those cases will be decided at a later date.
Despite that sliver of remaining hope, however, this is nothing less than a devastating legal blow for the Duggars.
Their case was never about the damages being sought, but instead constituted an effort to save face by demonstrating that there were numerous guilty parties who were in some way involved in the now-infamous Josh Duggar sex scandal.
The judge’s ruling confirms what millions already knew:
No one but Josh and his parents is responsible for the atrocities that took place in the Duggar home.
Watch Counting On online for more from reality TV’s most famous family.