How Appealing



Tuesday, December 22, 2015

“Ruling Could Help Washington Redskins in Trademark Case”: Richard Sandomir will have this article in Wednesday’s edition of The New York Times.

And today at “The Volokh Conspiracy,” Eugene Volokh has a post titled “Federal appeals court decides ‘The Slants’ case: excluding ‘disparaging marks’ from trademark registration violates the First Amendment.”

My earlier coverage of today’s en banc Federal Circuit ruling can be accessed here and here.

Posted at 10:23 PM by Howard Bashman



“Limit State Access to Federal Court”: In today’s edition of The New York Times, law professors Amanda Frost and Stephen I. Vladeck have an op-ed that begins, “Next month, the Supreme Court will decide whether to hear a case challenging an Obama administration policy that would give permission to millions of undocumented immigrants to stay and work in the United States.”

Posted at 10:09 PM by Howard Bashman



“Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin suspended amid ‘Porngate’ allegations”: Wallace McKelvey of The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania has this report.

You can view online at this link today’s per curiam suspension order of the Court of Judicial Discipline of Pennsylvania. According to paragraphs 9 and 10 of the order:

9. Of particular concern to the Court are two email exchanges between the Respondent and Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Baxter in which they comment upon the physical attributes of female employees in the Respondent’s office as well as sexually-suggestive observations. Clearly, these emails, which address judicial employees, are extremely inappropriate and offensive.

10. Because the Respondent utilized his government issued equipment to engage in these email exchanges, and participated in the email exchanges with other government employees who were using their government email addresses, he should have had a lower expectation of privacy.

You can access the complete suspension order at this link.

Posted at 5:58 PM by Howard Bashman



“Government Can’t Reject Trademarks for Being Disparaging or Offensive, Court Says; Ruling cites constitutional free-speech protections”: Brent Kendall of The Wall Street Journal has this report.

The Oregonian has a news update headlined “The Slants, Asian-American band from Portland, can trademark controversial name, U.S. court rules.”

At the “THR, Esq.” blog of The Hollywood Reporter, Eriq Gardner has a post titled “Rock Band Wins First Amendment Appeal Over ‘Disparaging’ Trademarks.”

And Mike Masnick of Techdirt has a post titled “Appeals Court Says US Government Cannot Deny Trademarks For Being ‘Disparaging.’

My earlier coverage of today’s en banc Federal Circuit ruling appears at this link.

Posted at 2:48 PM by Howard Bashman



“The government cannot refuse to register disparaging marks because it disapproves of the expressive messages conveyed by the marks.” So holds the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a ruling issued today in the case captioned In re Simon Shiao Tam.

The introduction to the majority opinion explains:

Mr. Simon Shiao Tam named his band THE SLANTS to make a statement about racial and cultural issues in this country. With his band name, Mr. Tam conveys more about our society than many volumes of undisputedly protected speech.

Earlier, NBC News had a report headlined “Could The Slants’ Trademark Suit Affect NFL’s Redskins’ Flap?

And earlier at “The Volokh Conspiracy,” Eugene Volokh had a post titled “The Redskins and The Slants: How an Asian American band name case may affect the Redskins trademark.”

Update: In early news coverage, Reuters reports that “U.S. appeals court says government cannot censor offensive trademarks.”

Posted at 10:38 AM by Howard Bashman



“Don’t let Eakin judge”: Today’s edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer contains an editorial that begins, “Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin apparently still doesn’t get it.”

Further in, the editorial states, “In addition to receiving numerous emails laden with pornographic, misogynist, racist, and homophobic content, Eakin relayed a joke about a battered woman, vowed to close his ‘titty deficit’ by patronizing strip clubs with fellow officers of the court, and nauseatingly imagined getting his female aides to share rooms with them during a planned golf outing in Myrtle Beach, S.C.”

And in today’s edition of The Philadelphia Daily News, columnist Helen Ubinas has an op-ed titled “No tactic is too low for Porngate.”

Posted at 8:44 AM by Howard Bashman