Native Americans take the battle over the Redskins name to the Supreme Court

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In May, the Redskins celebrated a victory in the courtroom when a judge dismissed a trademark suit filed against the team by Native Americans offended by the team’s name. The suit had been making its way through the court system for the past 17 years. The federal appeals court’s May decision did not weigh in on whether the name disparaged Native Americans. Instead, the court dismissed the case because the petitioners had waited too long to file their suit. The clock started running in 1984 on the 18th birthday of the youngest petitioner.

The Native Americans are not giving up yet though. They’re appealing that decision to the Supreme Court, reports Above The Law and the Blog of the Legal Times, arguing that trademark cancellation claims are not time-barred. We won’t know whether the Supreme Court will actually accept the case until later this year or next year.

I wrote about this case here at True/Slant in May, after an attorney working for the firm representing the Redskins voiced his displeasure with the team’s victory. The young attorney thought the name was offensive, and let everyone at the firm know this using Reply All. I wrote about the case again in July for Washingtonian magazine.

If the Supreme Court takes up the case, then there will finally be a legal ruling as to whether the term “redskin” is disparaging. If it doesn’t, the Native Americans have another game plan.

From my article in Washingtonian’s July issue:

Philip Mause, a partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath who is representing the Native Americans, says that all is not lost: Another petition challenges the Redskins name. With a much younger set of petitioners — led by Amanda Blackhorse of the Navajo Nation — they won’t face the time delay problem that caused the other case to be dismissed, raising the possibility that this time the courts could decide the case on the allegation of disparagement.

Blackhorse and her co-petitioners were in their late teens and twenties when they filed their petition.

The only thing that looks certain about this case is that it’s going into overtime.