It’s 2025, and the high-stakes legal battle between rap’s JAY-Z and Jane Doe is heating up, as attorney Tony Buzbee is coming out swinging against the hip-hop mogul’s approach to the courts. Buzbee, who is known for his can-do style, has pushed back against JAY-Z’s request to dismiss the sexual assault lawsuit, calling the defense “misguided, premature, and inconsistent with the law’s intent.”
This case, which involves claims from the year 2000, has not been without JAY-Z’s team fighting tooth and nail for dismissal on several different bases. But Buzbee isn’t having it. His most recent filing tears into the rapper’s arguments, disputing the underpinnings of the defense and maintaining that the law is on his client’s side.
One of JAY-Z’s main arguments is that because the New York City Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act (GMVA) wasn’t in existence at the time of the alleged attack, meaning it can’t be applied retroactively, it shouldn’t be used here because the alleged attack happened three months before the enactment of the law.
Buzbee contends that this reading of the law cuts against the very purpose behind it. He cites the legislative history of the GMVA, which, he argues, was designed to give survivors of gender-motivated violence a legal avenue, even if their incidents predate its passage. Buzbee asserted that dismissing Jane Doe’s case on such a basis would “frustrate the protections” the law is supposed to provide.
JAY-Z’s counsel similarly relies on another key argument: that the GMVA allegations are time-barred under the Child Victims Act (CVA), which preempts overlapping statutes. But Buzbee is disputing this logic.
He responded that courts had already dismissed similar preemption claims, adding that “local anti-discrimination laws are generally not preempted by state law in New York.” Put another way, JAY-Z’s team might be banking on legal precedent that doesn’t wash in this case.
As a sort of final line of defense, JAY-Z’s lawyers are contending that the alleged assault did not take place within New York City, which means the GMVA would not be applicable at all. But Buzbee isn’t buying it. He denounced the claim as “premature and procedurally improper,” pointing out that the discovery process hasn’t even begun. He contends that throwing the case out on those grounds would put the cart before the horse.
The GMVA was intended to assist survivors, not to hand alleged perpetrators a loophole,” Buzbee said forcefully, stating that he wants to fight this fight.
As both sides stake out increasingly farther-reaching positions, this legal showdown is poised to be lengthy and fiery. Although JAY-Z’s team has created a combative defense, Buzbee is meticulously laboring to dismantle it, element by ingredient.
For now, it will be up to the court to sort through these arguments. But one thing’s sure: Tony Buzbee isn’t giving up, and this fight isn’t finished yet.
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