A federal judge in Manhattan has rejected Blake Lively’s sexual harassment claims against It Ends with Us director Justin Baldoni, while allowing her retaliation allegations to advance to a jury trial in May.
In a lengthy ruling, Judge Lewis J. Liman found that a reasonable jury could view some conduct as retaliation rather than harassment, but he also concluded the harassment claims did not meet the legal standard for jury consideration. The decision narrows the case to retaliation, limiting what a jury will be asked to weigh.
Lively’s suit, filed in December 2024, accuses Baldoni and his Wayfarer partners of launching a social-media smear campaign after she raised concerns about a sexual harassment incident involving Baldoni’s collaborator. Baldoni denies the allegations, and a related defamation suit he filed against Lively was dismissed by a judge in June of the previous year.
The judge’s order signals that the upcoming May trial will focus on whether the online narrative surrounding Baldoni’s It Ends with Us campaign was organically formed or orchestrated by a crisis-public-relations effort to harm Lively’s reputation and career.
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