DiCorcia was represented in this lawsuit by Lawrence Barth of the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP in Los Angeles, California.
[2] In 2005, Nussenzweig learned of the photograph and filed a lawsuit, claiming that diCorcia and Pace/MacGill had violated his privacy rights under Sections 50 and 51 of New York's Civil Rights Law and that, as a Klausenburg Orthodox Jew, such a display would violate the Commandment in Torah against graven images.
New York law prohibits the use of a person's likeness, without consent, "for advertising or for purposes of trade."
DiCorcia and Pace/MacGill argued that the photograph represented "artistic expression", and was protected under the First Amendment and that the statute of limitations had expired for bringing a lawsuit.
In November 2007[5] the New York Court of Appeals upheld all previous decisions based on the statute of limitations and "artistic expression".