US Supreme Court rejects ex-lawmaker Steve King's appeal in 'Success Kid' copyright case

By Blake Brittain

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Tuesday to hear Republican former Iowa congressman Steve King's bid to avoid paying a small judgment for having used without permission an internet meme - the "Success Kid" photo of a determined-looking 11-month-old baby at the beach - to promote his 2020 reelection campaign.

The justices turned away King's appeal of a lower court's decision upholding a jury's verdict that his election campaign organization owed Laney Griner, the mother of boy shown in the copyrighted photo, $750 for posting the image in campaign ads.

The 2007 photo of little Sammy Griner became a popular internet meme for celebrating victories. The photo shows the boy in a green-and-white shirt looking directly at the camera with a fistful of sand and the surf in the background. Laney Griner has licensed the photo to companies including Coca-Cola and Microsoft for use in advertising. 

In using the photo for campaign purposes, King requested donations from his supporters to "make sure the memes keep flowing and the Lefties stay triggered." 

King lost his bid to retain his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives when he was defeated by a fellow Republican in the party's 2020 primary election. 

Griner sued King in 2020 in Iowa federal court, accusing him of copyright infringement. A jury sided with her and found that King's campaign owed her $750 in damages. The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict in 2024.

The King campaign's stated justification "is that they were creating and disseminating a meme on social media, as happens millions, if not billions, of times each day," Judge Duane Benton wrote. "The fact that 'everyone else is doing it' is not a particularly compelling justification."

King told the Supreme Court in a filing that he had an implied license to the photo. 

"When Griner asks the social media universe to create the meme, and it does, her capacity to single out individual copyists ought be severely curtailed," King's filing stated.

King's election loss followed criticism of his incendiary rhetoric related to immigration and other matters. The House in 2019 voted to repudiate King's comments questioning why "white supremacy" is offensive and stripped him of his committee assignments. King subsequently wondered aloud whether the human race would exist without rape and incest.

(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham)