The judge is simply wrong on the law.
1st Amendment may give freedom of opinion but it doesn’t give freedom to maliciously defame.
So the real question here is was there malicious defamation and any check on exactly how much due diligence they went through to confirm their facts before turning their hate machine on these kids would confirm that yes there was.
It will be appealed and I hope the judge is brought up for malfeasance like an lawyer can.