Slants Argue Ethnic Slurs Are Protected Speech

Arguing before the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, a lawyer for the Asian-American band called The Slants said that the First Amendment “requires all speech, no matter how offensive, not be restricted or gate-kept in any way.” In April, a three-judge Federal Circuit panel upheld the PTO’s denial of a trademark for the band’s name, but the court vacated that decision in order to consider the Constitutional question raised by the attorney. The band, which plays music it calls “Chinatown dance rock,” has been rejected twice for a trademark on the grounds that the name disparages Asians.