Jimmy Kimmel has defeated an appeal by former Congressman George Santos, who sued Kimmel and ABC after the comedian tricked him into making personalized Cameo videos and used them on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to mock the Republican. Santos, expelled from Congress in December 2023 over financial and ethical scandals, had turned to the video-on-demand app to earn money after his ouster.
In his lawsuit, Santos accused Kimmel and ABC of copyright infringement, fraudulent inducement, and other violations. Kimmel’s staff had ordered Cameo videos under false pretenses, coaxing Santos into making silly or controversial statements, which the show then aired in a recurring segment called “Will Santos Say It?”
Santos claims he earned more than $350,000 from Cameo, charging about $350 per video. He sought unspecified damages, according to Reuters.
A trial judge dismissed Santos’ lawsuit on August 19, 2024 — the same day he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Prosecutors said he had charged donors’ credit cards without authorization, spent campaign funds on personal expenses, fabricated contributions to qualify for national GOP funding, and collected COVID-19 unemployment benefits for which he was ineligible.
Santos, now serving a seven-and-a-quarter-year sentence at a medium-security prison in Fairton, New Jersey, later appealed the judge’s ruling in his case against Kimmel.
However, on September 15, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the ruling, finding that Kimmel’s use of the videos was protected under fair use, which permits limited use of copyrighted material for humor and parody.
The panel concluded Kimmel’s use qualified as fair use because the segment commented on Santos’ alleged willingness to “say absurd things for money.” The judges even noted that Santos’ own complaint portrayed Kimmel and his staff as being “motivated by (sarcastic) criticism and commentary.”
The panel also found that Santos suffered no market harm and failed to show any loss of income from his Cameo videos being aired on Kimmel’s show.
Santos rose to prominence after his 2022 election to Congress, but soon faced backlash for fabricating large portions of his biography — fabrications he later admitted. Some were so outlandish that he became a frequent punchline for comedians, including Kimmel, particularly after his expulsion from Congress.
For the second time, a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit from University of Wyoming sorority members who challenged the admission of a transgender woman, arguing that she did not meet the definition of the word "woman."
"Having considered the issues presented (again), we find that the majority of the claims must be dismissed on the grounds that this Court still may not interfere with the sorority's contractually valid interpretation of its own bylaws," U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson wrote in his ruling.
The case began in 2023, when six members of the University of Wyoming’s Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter sued the sorority for admitting Artemis Langford, a transgender woman, and allowing her to use the campus house’s common areas -- though not live there -- according to Wyoming Public Media.
In her first televised interview since her 2020 confirmation, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett appeared on CBS Sunday Morning to promote her new book, offering only vague commentary to host Norah O’Donnell in defense of the Court’s legitimacy when asked whether justices might overturn Obergefell v. Hodges.
Barrett was pressed on recent remarks from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who told the Raging Moderates podcast that the Court will likely “do to gay marriage what they did to abortion” and “send it back to the states.”
Laura Loomer, the far-right influencer with close ties to President Donald Trump, claimed during a deposition in her defamation lawsuit against HBO that sources close to the former president told her U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is gay.
Loomer is suing the network over comments by comedian Bill Maher, host of Real Time with Bill Maher, who joked that she had an affair with Trump. She alleges Maher's on-air remark about her "sleeping with Trump" -- echoing a rumor circulating at the time -- cost her a job in the Trump administration and the political influence that would have come with it. HBO has argued that Maher's comment is protected under the First Amendment, just as Loomer's own inflammatory remarks are shielded when she targets her political enemies.
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