Print

[Professor H]

Wasn't sure if this was news or sports news, but I guess the Washington Redskins - Football team should adopt my favorite potato rather than the Indian heritage if they want to remain the "Redskins".......   

http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2014/03/19/3416343/federal-trademark-office-rejects-washington-redskins-potatoes-as-disparaging-term/

[old salt]

I find the word Washington to be more disparaging than Redskins. 

More shenanigans by president Benedict.

[excelsior]

SCOTUS rules 8-0 that the government cannot regulate “offensive” speech:



Supreme Court strikes down law blocking disparaging trademarks

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/19/politics/supreme-court-redskins/index.html

The Supreme Court struck down part of a federal law that denies trademark protection of terms that disparage living or dead.

The ruling could benefit the NFL's Washington Redskins, whose trademark was canceled based on the same law in a separate proceeding.

"Holding that the registration of a trademark converts the mark into government speech would constitute a huge and dangerous extension of the government-speech doctrine, for other systems of government registration (such as copyright) could easily be characterized in the same way," Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion.

"The commercial market is well stocked with merchandise that disparages prominent figures and groups, and the line between commercial and non-commercial speech is not always clear, as this case illustrates," Alito added. "If affixing the commercial label permits the suppression of any speech that may lead to political or social 'volatility,' free speech would be endangered."

[The Fuzz]

A common sense ruling......I scratched my head during the entire ordeal with team names.

[BigRedDog]

A common sense ruling......I scratched my head during the entire ordeal with team names.

Interesting that the Professor posted this exactly 3 years ago today

[Professor H]

Interesting that the Professor posted this exactly 3 years ago today

A common sense ruling......I scratched my head during the entire ordeal with team names.

So the Supreme Court didn't buy the political correct position that the last admin tried to push?

Nice to see common sense over PC crap!   

I did see some recent cases where States can still prevent such free speech on license plates - curious if this affects those.