A handful of Paramount+ subscribers failed to win an order blocking the merger with Warner Bros. Discovery on Thursday, but a coalition of states will try again on Friday.

The plaintiffs sued in April, alleging that they had faced price increases and risked losing viewing options as a result of the transaction. At a hearing Thursday, Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín denied his request for a preliminary injunction.

“This is an extraordinary preliminary relief and the plaintiffs did not present a single piece of evidence in support of the motion,” the judge said. “Furthermore, I have serious doubts about plaintiffs’ ability to bring these antitrust claims.”

Paramount will face a tougher test on Friday, as a coalition of 12 attorneys general is seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the merger. The states filed their lawsuit Monday, alleging the $111 billion merger will harm competition in the movie and basic cable markets.

Earlier on Thursday, Paramount filed its opposition, arguing that the states are unlikely to prevail in their case and should not be granted a restraining order.

Jeffrey Kessler, Paramount’s lead attorney, was in the courtroom in Oakland, California, on Thursday afternoon to oppose the subscribers’ lawsuit. He argued that the underwriters’ attorney, Joseph Alioto, recently filed five similar actions seeking to block major mergers (four of them involving some of the same individual plaintiffs) and lost them all.

“It’s very clear in this circuit and elsewhere that to get a preliminary injunction, you have to clearly prove it with evidence,” Kessler argued. “And when there’s no evidence, then you can’t get a preliminary injunction.”

Paramount filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which Martínez-Olguín granted. He asked Alioto how he would modify the lawsuit if he had the option. Alioto said he would seek to obtain discovery that has been turned over to California and other states’ attorneys general.

“We are a private group,” he said. “We are not a government. We do not have the tools of a government.”

Alioto previously filed lawsuits on behalf of private parties attempting to block the Microsoft-Activision merger, the Capitol One-Discover merger, the Nippon Steel-US Steel merger, the Kroger-Albertsons merger, the United Airlines-Continental merger, and the T-Mobile-Sprint merger.

In response to Kessler’s argument about the previous lawsuits, Alioto said, “That’s true: These plaintiffs have brought other cases, and we’re proud that they did.”

“Senator Harry Reid sent them to me because the Department of Justice would not question these mergers,” he said.

The state attorneys general and Paramount previously agreed to tie the individual’s lawsuit to the states’ case, meaning Martínez-Olguín will handle the state matter as well.

The Writers Guild of America also filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the merger on Tuesday, while the Freedom of the Press Foundation and the Public Integrity Project filed a shareholder derivative lawsuit seeking to block the merger in Delaware Chancery Court.