The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the case of Nicholas Sandmann, a former Kentucky high school student who sued several news outlets for allegedly libelous coverage of his viral encounter with a Native American activist in 2019.

Justices decided not to take up Sandmann’s petition against several outlets, including ABC News, The New York Times, Gannett, and others, leaving in place a lower court’s dismissal of the massive libel suit.

The former student argued he was defamed by reports about his confrontation with Native American activist Nathan Phillips at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., five years ago.

Sandmann’s lawyer wrote in his petition that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit erred when it found the media outlets, which reported Phillips’s account that Sandmann had “blocked [his] way and wouldn’t allow [him] to retreat,” had published statements that were “protected opinions.”

Counsel for Sandmann referred to their client in court filings as a victim of “cancel culture” who was an “innocent high school student” at the time he crossed paths with Phillips. The Native American activist was attending an “Indigenous People’s March” while Sandmann was in town for the annual “March for Life” event.

“Sandmann was denounced by his church diocese, denied re-admission to his high school, and attacked in the national media,” according to the petition. “Round-the-clock police protection was assigned to his house; his visage was featured on nearly all major television outlets, with celebrity commentators stating that they would ‘like to punch him in the face,’ and worse.”

The 6th Circuit ruled 2-1 last August that the “blocking” statements at issue were “nonactionable” because the media published Phillips expressing “his subjective understanding of the situation and of Sandmann’s intent, an understanding informed by the pair’s proximity, the other students’ movement, and the lack of communication during the encounter.”

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Sandmann asked the Supreme Court in January to hear his appeal of the 6th Circuit decision and answer the following questions: “Do statements conveying observed sensory impressions in factual, descriptive terms constitute protected ‘opinion’ under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States?” and “Did the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit effectively eliminate the distinction between fact and opinion articulated in Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Company, 497 U.S. 1 (1990)?”

In January 2020, CNN settled a lawsuit filed by Sandmann for an unspecified amount. He also reached a settlement with NBC Universal in December 2021.