Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> are coming to town, albeit not until 2020. The Oakland franchise was initially going to be named the Se\u00f1ors, but was changed to the Raiders in 1960. Can a guy in a football helmut with an eye patch and swords on either side of his head be considered offensive? The Vegas Golden Knights are coming to play in the NHL this fall. Are knights a sign of white privilege? Classist elitism? Imperialist conquering? The Crusades?<\/p>\nIt’s all in how you see it, and the High Court says it’s also all within the bounds of free speech.<\/p>\n
Speak Freely<\/h2>\n
The Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) had denied the Slants’ application by citing the Lanham Act. The 1946 federal statute requires trademark requests to avoid being disparaging in nature, and to avoid falsely suggesting a “connection with persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt, or disrepute.”<\/p>\n
The PTO tried to make the argument that trademarks are government speech, as they’re being approved by the federal agency. Justice Alito rejected that reasoning, saying, “It offends a bedrock First Amendment principle: Speech may not be banned on the ground that it expresses ideas that offend.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a major ruling that reverses a longstanding statute, the United States Supreme Court has sided with the Slants, an Asian-American rock band that was denied a trademark by the US Patent and Trademark Office on the grounds that the name was disparaging to persons of Asian descent. Writing in the majority opinion, Justice Samuel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":52712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,61,16],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Touchdown for Redskins, Supreme Court Overturns 'Disparaging' Ruling<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n