• by Wendy Davis , October 17, 2025

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has asked a federal appellate court to revive his lawsuit against Meta Platforms over ads that wrongly used his name and image to sell CBD gummies.

Earlier this year, U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Williams in Delaware threw out Huckabee's complaint, essentially ruling that even if the allegations were true, they wouldn't show that Meta was at fault for the misappropriation.

Huckabee, the current U.S. Ambassador to Israel, now argues in a brief filed October 14 with the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals that he should have been allowed to proceed with his claim that Meta violated Arkansas's misappropriation law, the Frank Broyles Publicity Rights Protection Act.

That law, named for University of Arkansas coach Frank Broyles, gives state residents the right to control the commercial use of their names and images.

"Meta published these ads without Huckabee’s knowledge and permission," his attorneys write in their appellate brief. "Unfortunately, numerous Huckabee fans purchased these CBD products because they believed Huckabee had endorsed them."

Huckabee's appeal is the latest development in a legal battle dating to July 2024, when he sued Meta over phony endorsements in ads -- including one that linked to a fake Fox News site.

Williams initially dismissed Huckabee's claims last November, ruling that his complaint lacked the kinds of allegations "would allow the reasonable inference that Meta had any 'fault.'"

Huckabee then filed a proposed amended complaint that argued Meta acted recklessly -- in part, because other prominent people including author J.K. Rowling, actress Jennifer Aniston and skateboarder Tony Hawk had criticized the use of their images in fake CBD endorsements.

“For more than four years now, Meta has known that public figures, such as the governor, have had their names, images, and likenesses used to promote CBD products without their knowledge and consent,” Huckabee alleged in the proposed amended complaint.

Williams rejected Huckabee's bid to revive the claims. 

"That Facebook, 'one of the most dominant social media companies in the world' ... has previously published a handful of images that were used without authorization hardly allows for the reasonable inference that Meta knew that the images of plaintiff were also used without authorization," he wrote at the time.

Huckabee is now asking the 3rd Circuit to reverse that ruling, arguing that his allegations warranted further proceedings.

"The proposed amended complaint sufficiently pled Meta knew or should have known Huckabee had not consented to the ads," his lawyers write.

Meta is expected to respond to the arguments by mid-December.