NEW YORK — A federal judge dismissed most of Blake Lively’s claims against Justin Baldoni and the other defendants over the making and promotion of It Ends With Us, wiping out her sexual harassment allegations while allowing only three narrower claims to move toward a May 18 trial. In a 152-page opinion and order, Judge Lewis J. Liman said Lively may proceed only on a California retaliation claim against It Ends With Us Movie LLC and Wayfarer Studios, a claim that The Agency Group PR LLC aided and abetted retaliation, and a breach of contract claim against It Ends With Us Movie LLC, April 2, 2026.
The ruling sharply narrows the case. Notably, the three surviving claims are against It Ends With Us Movie LLC, Wayfarer Studios and The Agency Group PR LLC, rather than Baldoni personally. In Reuters’ breakdown of the decision, the key legal reasons were clear: Liman found Lively was an independent contractor for purposes of Title VII, and he concluded her California harassment theories did not have a sufficient nexus to California.
What the Blake Lively lawsuit ruling actually says
Legally, the order leaves Lively with a case that is still alive but far smaller. The retaliation claims keep her central narrative intact — that she was punished after raising concerns about conduct on set — yet the dismissal of the harassment counts strips away the broadest part of her suit. Even so, many of the same factual allegations may still surface before a jury if they are relevant to the remaining retaliation and contract issues, a point underscored in AP’s report on the ruling.
For the defense, the ruling removes the most severe claims from the trial. For Lively, it preserves a path to argue that the fallout from her complaints — rather than the complaints alone — caused professional harm. The case is smaller, but it is not over.
How the Blake Lively lawsuit got here
This feud has been escalating for well over a year. It first spilled into public view through Lively’s December 2024 civil rights complaint, which accused Baldoni of harassment during production and alleged a coordinated effort to damage her reputation once she objected. From there, the dispute expanded into dueling lawsuits, discovery battles and a public fight over what actually happened on set and after production.
The litigation then took another major turn when Baldoni’s own offensive faltered. In June 2025, Judge Liman dismissed Baldoni’s $400 million defamation suit against Lively, removing a major piece of the litigation he had launched in response. That history matters now because the April 2 order changes the structure of the case more than the underlying public dispute. What remains is a slimmer trial centered on retaliation and contract questions, not the sweeping harassment suit Lively first brought.
Unless the case settles, the May 18 trial is expected to focus on whether Lively was retaliated against after voicing concerns, whether contractual promises tied to her return to production were broken, and how much of the broader public battle is relevant to those remaining claims. After months of sprawling accusations, the Blake Lively lawsuit is now a much narrower case headed to trial.
