President Trump’s “travel bans” have been the linchpin for the “resistance.” After Trump signed his first executive order restricting travel from seven predominately Muslim countries, many individuals who are lawful residents were held up at airports across America. Quickly, the Ninth Circuit stayed the enforcement of this order. In response to the Ninth Circuit’s ruling, Trump issued a second order to clean up some of deficiencies of his first order. Namely, EO-2 clarifies that legal residents are not affected by the order.

But advocacy groups soon challenged EO-2. In recent months, the Fourth and the Ninth Circuit upheld injunctions preventing the Trump Administration from implementing EO-2. Soon after these decisions, the Trump Administration petitioned the Supreme Court for certiorari and asked it to stay the injunctions preventing EO-2 from going into effect.

In a per curiam opinion, the Court gave the Trump Administration what it wanted. Sort of. It stayed the Fourth and Ninth Circuit’s injunctions as it related to individuals who do not have “bona fide relationships” with persons or entities in the U.S. Thus, the Trump Administration was able to implement a milder form of EO-2 in recent weeks. Continue reading →

Much to Howard Dean’s dismay, the Supreme Court held in Matal v. Tam that the Lahman Act’s “Disparagement Clause” is facially unconstitutional under the First Amendment. The Slants, a band comprised of Asian Americans, sought to trademark their group’s name. Simon Tam, the leader of The Slants, intentionally chose a derogatory term for Asian Americans. Tam chose the term “slants” to reclaim the status of the term as a derogatory term.

“South Park” had quite the field day when the Redskins’ trademark was canceled.

When Tam applied for a trademark, the Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) denied his application for The Slants, deeming the term disparaging. But does the government get to decide what’s a slur? As Ilya Shapiro observes in an amicus brief supporting Tam, the PTO had trademarked other questionable names: N.W.A., Queer Queen, the Dead Kennedys and Dying Fetus–just to name a few. Indeed, what is “disparaging” is often what is empowering.

Continue reading →