AOC Photographer Loses Copyright Case Over Image Used in Illegal Parking Story

Mar 31, 2026

Pesala Bandara

A woman with dark hair looks to the side while in the background, a white car is parked at an angle by a curb. The car's front is highlighted with a yellow rectangle. — AOC’s photographer sued The Washington Free Beacon for using a cutout of his portrait in articles about her illegal parking | Image via court documents

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (AOC) official campaign photographer had his lawsuit dismissed after claiming a news website infringed his copyright by using a cutout of his portrait in coverage of the congresswoman’s illegal parking.

Jesse Korman served as the political campaign photographer for AOC during her successful run for Congress in 2018. During this time, Korman shot the campaign’s defining portrait of AOC, which depicted her gazing past the camera.

A woman with dark hair pulled back, wearing a dark top, looks slightly to her left against a dark blue background. The image has a vertical line down the center, indicating it may be a scanned photo. — Jesse Korman’s campaign photograph of AOC | Image via court documents

In 2021, news outlet The Washington Free Beacon used Korman’s photograph of AOC in a 2021 news article, which covered the congresswoman’s car parked illegally outside a Whole Foods store in Washington, D.C. The Washington Free Beacon — an American political journalism website which identifies itself as conservative — used a cutout of Korman’s campaign portrait of AOC against a photo of her white Tesla illegally parked near the grocery store.

Four years later, in 2025, Korman filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the website, arguing that his use of the photograph had substantially damaged the market for his image. According to a report by The Washington Free Beacon, the photographer demanded a fee of $15,000 for the usage.

However, on Monday, a federal court dismissed Korman’s case against the website. Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia, found that The Washington Free Beacon’s use of the image, taken by photographer Jesse Korman, was transformative and protected by the doctrine of fair use.

A grid of 32 Campbell’s Soup cans, each labeled with a different flavor, arranged in four rows and eight columns against a white background. The cans are depicted in a pop art style. — Andy Warhol’s ‘Campbell Soup Cans’ (1961-1962) | Image via court documents

In her opinion, Brinkema says the news outlet didn’t use the photo for the same purpose it was originally taken, and compared the usage to Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans paintings. She states that while Korman’s photograph was intended to portray AOC in a positive way, The Washington Free Beacon’s was using it to criticize her. According to the judge, because of that shift in purpose — similar to how Andy Warhol repurposed a soup logo for commentary in his art in the 1960s — the website’s usage was “plainly transformative.”

“Free Beacon was not using the image of AOC to depict AOC, nor was it using the photograph to portray AOC in a positive light or to facilitate her political campaign. Rather, Free Beacon used the photograph as part of its criticism of AOC’s politics, focusing on the hypocrisy of claiming to be one of the common folk but actually being an elitist,” Brinkema writes. “In this sense, Free Beacon’s use of Korman’s photograph most closely follows the Campbell’s soup hypothetical discussed in Warhol.”

“In the 1960s, Warhol produced the series of paintings shown below depicting Campbell’s soup cans. As the Warhol Court explained, although Warhol’s artwork replicates a copyrighted logo, his use of the copyrighted material did ‘not supersede the objects of the advertising logo’ because ‘[t]he purpose of Campbell’s logo [was] to advertise soup,’ whereas ‘Warhol’s canvases … use[d] Campbell’s copyrighted work for an artistic commentary on consumerism, a purpose that is orthogonal to advertising soup.’”

The judge concludes: “Similarly, because Free Beacon’s use of the AOC photograph is orthogonal to the photograph’s original purpose, Free Beacon’s use of Korman’s photograph was transformative.”

In her opinion, Brinkema argues that the news outlet’s reporting, which uses photographs to criticize public figures, is a clear example of legitimate political commentary. The judge says that requiring journalists to ask permission or pay to use such photos would undermine free speech and make it harder to report and critique people in power.

“Here, Free Beacon’s articles and accompanying images are paradigmatic examples of social commentary and political criticism,” Brinkema writes. “Imposing a requirement on journalists to receive permission from, and pay royalties to, copyright holders to use their photographs as part of political criticism regarding the public figures depicted would frustrate the balance Congress struck between robust copyright protections and the free flow of ideas.”

Korman previously sued Fox News Network LLC for infringing his copyright by reproducing and “publicly displaying” his photo of AOC during a television broadcast. In 2020, the news network settled the lawsuit with the photographer.

Image credits: All photos via court documents.