‘Stunningly deficient’: Judge excoriates Gaetz and Greene for suing civic groups over cancelled rallies, saying their claims are ‘legally and literally, a conspiracy theory’

Matt Gaetz, on the left; Marjorie Taylor Greene, on the right, in Florida.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., left, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., address attendees during a rally, Friday, May 7, 2021, in The Villages, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

A litany of civil rights groups are demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorneys fees from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and former attorney general candidate Matt Gaetz over a failed lawsuit blaming various nonprofits for a canceled speech in Southern California.

As Law&Crime previously reported, Gaetz, until this month a GOP representative from Florida, and Greene, a Georgia Republican — both of whom are considered to be members of the party’s right-wing and pro-Trump flanks — sued the cities of Riverside and Anaheim over a political rally that was scheduled to occur in July 2021.

While the court allowed the lawsuit against the municipalities to move forward, U.S. District Judge Hernan Vera strongly rejected attempts to sue organizations like the NAACP, LULAC, the League of Women Voters and various local entities as “both legally and literally, a conspiracy theory that relies purely on conjecture.”

Late last month, Gaetz, Greene and various, associated political committees agreed with the defendant cities, and a hospitality company that also remained on the legal hook as a defendant, to dismiss the lawsuit. In the stipulation asking to dismiss the case with prejudice filed in the Central District of California on Oct. 28, the plaintiffs and defendants agreed “[a]ll parties will bear their own costs and attorneys’ fees.”

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