Vintage Dilbert (26 years ago)

About Provocation

An amicus brief occasioned by Lee v. Tam, whereby the US Patent Office declined to register a trademark for The Slants (an Asian American rock band) and got sued on First Amendment grounds.

Excerpt:

QUESTION PRESENTED
Does the government get to decide what’s a slur?

[...] No public official can be trusted to neutrally identify speech that “disparages.” Moreover, disparaging speech has been central to political debate, cultural discourse, and personal identity for as long as this country has existed. [...]

Determining whether a term is disparaging is an incredibly complex endeavor that the government can’t possibly be equipped to handle. For example, one of this brief’s authors is a cracker (as distinct from a hillbilly) who grew up near Atlanta, but he wrote this sentence, so we can get away with saying that. Another contributor — unnamed because not a member of the bar — is an Italian American honky who has always wanted to play in a band called the Dagos, which of course would close every set with “That’s Amore” from “Lady and the Tramp.” But, with only his great grandparents having come from Italy, is he dago enough to “take back” the term? And amici’s lead counsel is a Russian Jewish émigré who’s now a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen. Can he make borscht-belt jokes about Canuck frostbacks even though the first time he went to shul was while clerking in Jackson, Mississippi? [...]

CONCLUSION

Amici, and all others who sometimes find themselves lumped into a basket of deplorables — now
that’s a great band name! — urge the Court to let people judge for themselves what’s derogatory.

Respectfully submitted,
ILYA SHAPIRO
Counsel of Record
THOMAS A. BERRY
Cato Institute
1000 Mass. Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20001
(202) 842-0200
ishapiro@cato.org
tberry@cato.org