The 7th Amendment and breaking down the upcoming opinion on why 47.1 won’t apply to Blake Lively

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]I should say Ellen Garop's argument that um there is remember how I said there's a first amendment issue there's also a seventh amendment issue the right to a jury okay and Michael Gotautle literally like not even exaggerating he was like don't worry about the seventh amendment your honor and so THE FREAKING JUDGE WAS LIKE SO JUST FORGET ABOUT THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION UTION. Like literally, he said that. He's like, "So just forget about the US Constitution." I almost died. Like I was like, "G."

[00:00:38]And I don't know if anyone else got it cuz it happened really fast. But I literally was like, "They're going to fuck." I was like, "They're going to kick me out of this courtroom cuz I almost burst out laughing." Judge Lyman from the bed.

[00:00:50]He's like, "But just that's how he did."

[00:00:52]He's like this with his hands. He's like, "Just forget about the United States Constitution.

[00:00:58]We don't need the seventh amendment.

[00:01:01]Like the problem is, okay, is they settled.

[00:01:11]Team Baldon, I mean, team Lively did not think this through when they settled.

[00:01:15]They should have just and and Lyman said that this is your client's decision to keep pursuing this.

[00:01:22]He's like, and then he said, and Lyman was funny, and that he's like, not that I'm telling your client to drop it. It's not like I'm pressuring your client to drop it.

[00:01:37]I wouldn't pressure your client to try.

[00:01:38]Like, he said it three times in succession. It's another time I was just like, this dude is pissed.

[00:01:46]It's like, what do I got to DO TO GET RID of this case?

[00:01:50]It's like I don't want to make this decision.

[00:01:54]He's like, but if I'M GOING TO DO IT, I HAVE TO DO IT WELL. You know, like LL Cool J. It's like doing it well.

[00:02:03]You guys don't get it. You're too [ __ ] young. Whatever. Some millennial who likes hip hop understood that reference.

[00:02:10]So, whatever.

[00:02:14]I'm not old. You guys are just young.

[00:02:19]comatory punitive they're not that's what I'm saying and then uh trouble all right so Ellen Goff's argument that that Lyman completely bought 100% no question.

[00:02:48]She's like compensatory damages and treble damages. Jury questions, punitive damage, jury question. Your honor, there's no jury. We settled.

[00:03:03]We freaking settled.

[00:03:05]Lyman loves I was going to say cool J, but that doesn't make sense. But Lyman loves the seventh amendment cuz he was like, "Fuck you guys. I'm not deciding a jury question.

[00:03:17]Cuz that's what he was like, so basically you're asking for like a de facto bench trial.

[00:03:22]And then Gotley was like, "Yeah, you could do that."

[00:03:31]Got was LIKE, "SURE. YEAH, EXACTLY. YOU DON'T NEED WE DON'T NEED A JURY FOR THIS, YOUR HONOR. WE don't need it." you know, you there's there's other mechanisms that are comparable to the federal rules of civil procedure where you know, judges decide issues of damages all the time. And then Judge Lyman was like, "All of those are completely different than what the [ __ ] this is. You guys have settled, right?

[00:03:54]There's no jury." And then the other thing that Ellen Gaf pointed out, Yeah. he was like, that's why he's mad.

[00:04:02]He's like, "I [ __ ] this up.

[00:04:04]They should have just well whatever it is what it is. I I can't say what anybody should do but um so so 47.1 this that and then Ellen Gop pointed out hey guys or judge remember the Dow bear hearing that we were supposed to have where you said specifically after we had the pre-trial conference you made us schedule our experts for the following Friday and you wanted each side to question the expert for one hour each. That didn't happen because that was supposed to happen on Friday and on Monday we settled.

[00:04:43]So, how is Blake Lively supposed to prove what her compensatory damages are?

[00:04:50]Compensatory damages are damages that compensate you back. And Lyman kept saying, "What damages are there other than attorney's fees? You guys haven't suffered any damages."

[00:05:02]And then Gotle said, well, Blake Lively, he tried to say, okay, get this.

[00:05:17]He tried to say Blake Lively was harmed by the [ __ ] complaint because her reputation took a hit because they called her a liar.

[00:05:35]And Ellen Gop was like, "That's not true because what we what they've been saying is that what what damaged Blake was a smear campaign. Not that we called her a liar once, but she's alleging that there was a smear campaign. So all of the Dowbear stuff, all of the Dowbear stuff was all smear campaign evidence anyway.

[00:06:05]She pointed that out. She was like, all the Dow Bear stuff was going to talk about smear campaign. There was nobody who was gonna say Blake Lively got damaged because Beloni called her a liar. So, how are we supposed to get this evidence? Assuming for the sake of argument that you admit all this.

[00:06:25]How could we do it? We would have to reopen the whole case and the case has been settled.

[00:06:31]for you to do this, we would have to reopen everything and basically litigate everything that we just decided to settle.

[00:06:41]And and Lyman said that too at a different point. He was like, "If I did this, then yeah, we have to bring in depositions. We got to do experts. We got to do a [ __ ] evidentiary here."

[00:06:51]Like for that, why did you settle?

[00:06:56]So that's another issue. Lyman does not want to be the person to decide actual malice or decide trouble damages or punitive damages or compensatory damages because he said that would be up to the jury.

[00:07:12]The jury would always decide one what the damages are and then issues of punitive and stuff like that would be like part two of the um amount.

[00:07:29]So this is what a jury would normally do. And Lyman's like their argument about the seventh amendment is you know compelling.

[00:07:39]like as a federal judge, I'm just GOING TO GO OUT ON A LIMB and say the Constitution is still [ __ ] important.

[00:07:45]Call me crazy. So that was part of it, right? So I think those were the best arguments that GOP had was that, you know, you, your honor, would have to have like reopen and essentially do a trial of everything that they settled. Now, here's the other thing that I really do think Lyman is going to say.

[00:08:14]Blake Lively could have had another remedy if she had not settled.

[00:08:26]What was the other remedy? Basically, he literally said, and Ellen Gop said that if Blake Lively hadn't settled, she could go to California state court for 47.1.

[00:08:47]So I think Lyman is gonna say when I got rid of this when I got rid of the complaint I specifically said I am not deciding privilege under 70 47.1.

[00:09:00]He specifically said that in the opinion. So when it settled, this was left open and what Lyman was saying, if you really wanted to, you couldn't get it under this forum, but you could always go back to California state court and make a filing for attorneys fees under 47.1. The same way the New York Times is trying to get their fees in New York State court, right, under the under the New York anti-SLAP, Judge Lyman is like, "You guys could have done that same [ __ ] by filing a law of a claim for fees in California.

[00:09:43]So why do I got to be the one to do this? You guys could have done this [ __ ] differently because I specifically said I'm not talking about it.

[00:09:52]So the same way the New York Times is going after Belon's team in New York State court, Lyman was like, "You could have done this, and since you could have done this, I don't need to decide this."

[00:10:05]That's one way that he might go.

[00:10:08]I don't think he's going to grant attorney's fees at all.

[00:10:17]I don't see how he could grant attorney's fees because there's steps to this.

[00:10:23]Okay.

[00:10:26]In my opinion, there's steps.

[00:10:31]Oh, wait. I'm going to use the other color. This is a better marker.

[00:10:37]All right. So, first step, in my opinion, he might not he might skip this step.

[00:10:42]He might not. It didn't sound like he would, but I think first amendment Beldon had a right to file JB versus BL.

[00:10:59]That's one reason 47.1 won't apply. Then this is just the constitutional reasons, okay? It might not be in the order that he goes down, but then there's a seventh amendment issue. Juries decide damages and he's not a jury jury. Damn, my handwriting sucks today.

[00:11:26]Okay, jury decide damages and he does not want to get rid of the seventh amendment. So I think these are two constitutional reasons why 47.1 will not apply. Now the third reason is 47.1 privilege.

[00:11:48]Who has the burden?

[00:11:54]And he sounds to me Lyman sounds like he's going to put that that burden on Blake because he says she is the one looking for fees.

[00:12:06]She's the one looking for money.

[00:12:10]So, she should be the one to prove without malice.

[00:12:17]And since she didn't prove without malice, because there was no trial, there is no jury finding without malice.

[00:12:32]There's no 47.1.

[00:12:35]So far, this is what I'm thinking.

[00:12:38]First amendment protected Justin Baldon's lawsuit so he can't get punished under 47.1 for filing it. Then the second constitutional issue should be under the seventh amendment. Blake Lively never proved experts to show that she personally suffered damages just because Justin Baldoni called her a liar. All of her damages were about the smear campaign.

[00:13:05]So, in order for her to prove damages, she would essentially ask this court to reopen this case and make findings of fact that normally are for juries.

[00:13:17]And the court is not going to do that because the courts already said today in court, the seventh amendment protects the defendants rights to juries.

[00:13:31]141 charges to me. No, that's a different issue. Um, so then that's the second issue. So then this one is privilege. Blake Lively is saying her CRD complaint is privileged. That was really what it was, the CRD.

[00:13:53]Okay. But she had to show it was without malice.

[00:14:00]And since they never went to trial again, how is she supposed to prove without malice? How is Justin Baldon supposed to prove with malice? There's no jury.

[00:14:10]So literally like Lively's team is trying so hard. They're trying to like like Neo dodging bullets like you know trying to squeeze different theories into why this should be able to work.

[00:14:27]But the reality is is that the door is closed on evidence because the judge said evidence would require ultimately a jury and I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to take the place of the jury.

[00:14:41]Blake can't go to California state court. I don't see how because they they settled.

[00:14:49]She could have before they settled and that was what the judge was saying.

[00:14:55]If Blake Lively had gone to California state court and filed this law and filed a lawsuit for fees before they settled and then just settled the federal case and said we're going to leave California state open, they could have done that.

[00:15:12]And that's what Lyman was saying. You guys had another way to do this, but you chose this way. And before we could have the doubt bear hearing and before there could be any like jury finding, you guys settled, it's not my fault you settled cuz you could have gone to California state court.

[00:15:35]So for the most part, like that's where we are. Like I think I think there's still plenty of argument that the first amendment and seventh amendment are going to protect Baldon's complaint and protect Beldoni from.