1st Amendment Violation.

Byline: Derek Hawkins

United States Supreme Court

Case Name: Andrei Iancu v. Erik Brunetti

Case No.: 18-302

Focus: 1st Amendment Violation

Two Terms ago, in Matal v. Tam, 582 U. S. ___ (2017), this Court invalidated the Lanham Act's bar on the registration of "disparag[ing]" trademarks. 15 U. S. C. 1052(a). Although split between two non-majority opinions, all Members of the Court agreed that the provision violated the First Amendment because it discriminated on the basis of viewpoint. Today we consider a First Amendment challenge to a neighboring provision of the Act, prohibiting the registration of "immoral[] or scandalous" trademarks. Ibid. We hold that this provision infringes the First Amendment for the same reason: It too disfavors certain ideas.

Affirmed

Dissenting: ROBERTS, C. J., and BREYER, J., filed opinions concurring in part and dissenting in part. SOTOMAYOR, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which...