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Supreme Court strikes down law blocking disparaging trademarks


Washington (CNN)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 case at hand involves Simon Tam, an Asian-American musician and political activist who named his rock band "The Slants" in an attempt to take back a term that once directed as an insult. He sought to register the name with the trademark office.
The request was denied on the ground that it is disparaging to "persons of Asian descent."
But it has wider impact.
"The case also has obvious implications for the similar dispute involving the Washington Redskins, who had their trademark canceled under the same statute and theory that the justices invalidated today," said Steve Vladeck, CNN legal analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of law. "It should now follow that their trademark also should not have been invalidated."
The Washington Redskins Attorney Lisa Blatt said the team was "thrilled" with the decision.
"The Team is thrilled with today's unanimous decision as it resolves the Redskins' long-standing dispute with the government," she told CNN in a statement. "The Supreme Court vindicated the Team's position that the First Amendment blocks the government from denying or canceling a trademark registration based on the government's opinion."

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

Glad to hear it. This should have never even been Federal law, It is a private matter.

The consumer should decide this. If people don't wish to do business with corporations that hold such names, the market will dictate the outcome.

What a loaded headline. I hope I have the sense to stay away from this thread.

But I doubt it.

Well it was from CNN after all.

I live in Redskins country but love Chief Wahoo and the Indians.

So I was happy to see this decision and all my neighbors are cheering it as well. I will almost feel sorry for them when our Browns crush the Skins next time.

I hated Dan Snyder when he first bought the 'skins. And I was so happy to watch him "manage" the team into the ground.

He was one of those billionaire wunderkinds who figured he could easily run an NFL team because, you know, he was so smart.

Reminded me of Art Modell.

But Snyder has impressed me by standing up to the self-righteous liberal bullies.

You have a way with words.

Glad you find extreme delight in supporting racist caricatures and outdated names. Obviously you wish to make America white dominant again.

I support making America Great Again, including fair and not so touchy emotionally that a cartoon Chief causes people to cry racism and pee in their pants.

I just figured out why I like to bash all of your posts, they read like a scene in one flew over the cuckoo's nest! Take your meds.

Long live the Chief!

Never in my life did I think I would have to fight to save that happy warrior.

Great Post GM, Go Indians!

As a child I would wear my Wahoo hat and root so hard for the Indians to beat the Washington Senators and stay out of the basement. Today we have a team that competes with the elites of Baseball and I find that to be a much better situation.

One of my first heroes, besides John Wayne, was Samuel Edward Thomas McDowell! (Wahoo hat over my heart, head bowed)

That is what you think. You are projecting your involvement in social justice causes onto other people.

From reading the tailgate forum, I know you are an Indians fan and from some other threads, you have said you have Ohio roots. Have you ever heard a Cleveland Indians fan talk about native Indians disparagingly? Have you ever seen somebody use Chief Wahoo as a way to put down natives? I have never seen or heard that before.

To fans, it is a logo. It is what they grew up with and what they grew to love. I do think Chief Wahoo is kind of goofy, but I also don't see any harm in wearing it. We had this discussion in one of these threads a while back and one of our fellow Dawgs lives near an Indian reservation and people wear Chief Wahoo gear with pride and it doesn't even have anything to do with the Cleveland Indians.

Here's a question-- do you think that is accurate? I don't live anywhere near a reservation but I have no reason to doubt that poster, and others who have made similar observations. If this is true, would that change your mind even a little bit-- that there are a large number of natives out there who not only don't find Yahoo offensive, they actually wear the logo with pride?

I think this is issue tells us that bigotry is alive and well w/many Americans.

They pretend they are accepting of blacks because of the outrage and the attacks they would receive if they voiced their bigoted opinions.

They pretend they accept gays because of the outrage and the attacks they would receive if they voiced their bigoted opinions.

They pretend they accept women as equals because of the outrage and the attacks they would receive if they voiced their bigoted opinions.

But.........find a true minority group like Native Americans and these same people proudly display their bigoted opinions. This is also true w/how they look at Mexicans.

Bash, mock, and disrespect the groups that aren't strong enough to truly defend themselves and then pretend to be open-minded towards groups that are now able to defend themselves.

I think those of you who are from one of the three groups I mentioned should be very wary of the sincerity of the the bigots who are gloating over this "victory."

Not entirely. Not many people know the history of what truly happened with Native Americans. When I broach the topic with those who know, it gets into the territory of "oh, that's awful...". A hint of uncomfortable feelings arise, and I rarely push the conversation past that point.



No, but not many know the history of using red skin, big goofy smiles, war paint, etc. to demean a racial and ethnic group.



Okay, but just because you can do it doesn't mean it's right.



To those who keep a critical consciousness, no.

Those who educate themselves on the underlying history of ethnic groups, those from all walks of life, usually take offense to caricatures.
--------------------

I've answered yours, and now I ask you a couple of mine.

How long would a logo like red sambo exist if there were as many Native Americans as there are African Americans.

What would life be like if the numbers of these groups were flipped?

I would suggest you do your part and not buy tickets or merchandise.

So if acknowledge that many people do not know the history very well, why would you reply to somebody who staunchly defends Chief Yahoo with something like this:


That is not why people support the logo! To sports fans, it is a logo. It is part of the team. It has nothing to do with the history of natives... sorry but that's just the truth. If you want to say that people should educate themselves more on history, sure, that's a reasonable point.

Regarding your questions about what things would be like if the numbers of Native Americans and African Americans were flipped - I honestly don't know. Hypotheticals like that are hard, and the PC nature of things makes it even harder. If I had to take a guess, I would concede that there would probably be more controversy over the logo if the numbers were switched.

It's not just a matter of numbers though. For example, Asian-Americans are routinely discriminated against in our academic institutions-- they need to have significantly higher test scores and grades than other races to have an equal chance for advancement (that is real racism and discrimination, by the way), and there certainly isn't any massive outcry over that.

Perhaps a more relevant, sports-related example would be logos for the Celtics and Fighting Irish... see:



I know the parallels between the Celtics logo and Chief Wahoo aren't exact. But then again, neither are the Wahoo and Blackface comparisons.

What he either doesn't realize or doesn't wish to admit, is that the vast majority of Native Americans don't even care about these logos. It seems to me it's more about white guilt than anything else.

Irish weren't enslaved or exterminated in America.

Native Americans and African Americans were.

Is it really that hard to understand. Such images are used to make such feelings and ideas normal.

I refuse to buy wahoo merch. Only place wahoo is used is now on merch. Nowhere in the ballpark is he predominantly displayed.

It is as easy to understand as why one man sees a glass of water half full while another sees it as half empty.

I have this feeling as well... I had a scorcher written up but decided against posting it (keeping OCD's truce thread in mind here). But yeah, there is a lot of truth to that.

One more point: there are so many real problems out there, terrible things that happen throughout the world every single day. Why focus the outrage and energy on this? It just doesn't make any sense, but anyway, that's enough rambling for the day.

It's easy to understand as why one man sees a man as a man while another sees him as a [black, white, red, brown, yellow] man.

jc

For the record, the victory in this court case did not directly involve the Indians or Redskins. It was a victory for free speech, as the court struck down part of a federal law that outlawed disparaging trademarks.

Whether or not something is offensive, disparaging, or even hateful is a separate argument from whether the federal government has any business in being involved in that distinction. Any reasonable interpretation of the first amendment would suggest that the government should not be.

While the KKK is free to march in our nation, it seems outrage over sports logos is what's in the news. I must agree with you. Their outrage would be better served elsewhere.

Agreed. Most men don't see things that way until some lily liver starts yelling racism.

Some might even see these logos as a rallying cry and symbol for their team.
I'd never considered it anything racial until people started making an issue out of it. I don't see it as anything racial now.

Some not most.....


And some men are tired of being accused of racism all the time, while they usually wonder why that is.

The Irish may not have been enslaved or exterminated, but it wasn't for a lack of trying. It was done in a more subtle manner, but the effort to get rid of them was there nonetheless. (In the British Empire, and in the US) The potato famine, the refusal of the British to assist them, the miserable ships that brought them to the US, and the way they were ostracized and persecuted.

This world has a long history of mistreatment of various peoples, peoples enslaving other peoples, and people having their land taken away from them. In the early Biblical times, Middle Eastern, Eastern, and African rulers would defeat a people, and either exterminate them to the last man, (keeping the women and children for themselves) or would relocate them far away from their native lands. In some cases, they might leave the lowliest of the peoples they conquered, the very poor, and such, to stay and work the land.

Slavery and mistreatment of others is a disease that goes back almost as far as humans do. We look at a few instances as worse than others, but they were consistent throughout human history, after the fall in the garden of Eden. Peoples have lost their homelands. They have been forced to assimilate to a new land/culture.

I have heard people talk about how much better Canada treats all people than the US does. Go ask the Native Aboriginal population in Canada about that. They would have to move up about 5000 spots to just be undesirable to the rest of the Canadian population. You can go all around the world and find similar examples of mans inhumanity to man. Caricatures are incredibly minor compared to the horrors some peoples have faced, or continue to face today.

I find extreme delight in supporting the first Amendment, which unless they changed it, does not give people the right to never be offended. In fact the first amendment, if exercised properly, is almost guaranteed to offend some people...

I agree. Who cares if we call people bigots? After all, the First Amendment allows us to offend some people.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you...

THE SLANTS!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx7Z8Vmv6Fc

The U.S. Supreme Court in essence ruled unanimously that the Washington Redskins logo is not disparaging.



The Supreme Court is considered the most moral/ethical branch of our government.

The vote was unanimous. Not even close.



I bet Chief Lone Star just wishes they'd play football.

Nice pic of the Supremes!

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is so hot!

The Slants!

My son Keith is a fan.



Ooppssss...

I forgot it's 2017.

Keith is the one in the middle.

The first amendment allows us to offend all people.

That doesn't matter to some people. They wish to label people as bigots because they disagree with them. It's the way of the world these days. Simply call people derogatory names until they buckle to your way of thinking. Try to shame them because their views aren't the same as your own. Nothing really new there.

Hey Pit. You keep fighting the good fight there, bro. Your rhetoric is freaking lame and you are resorting to making crap up!