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Supreme Court sides with The Slants, rules ban on offensive names is unconstitutional

Supreme Court sides with The Slants, rules ban on offensive names is unconstitutional

"The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a federal trademark law banning offensive names is unconstitutional, siding with a rock band whose name had been deemed racially disparaging by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office."

"In an 8-0 ruling, the court determined the law’s so-called β€œdisparagement clause” violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment."

"The case centered on Oregon-based, Asian-American band The Slants, which was denied a trademark because its name was considered offensive. The band countered that the 70-year-old law at issue violates free-speech rights -- and Justice Samuel Alito, in the court’s opinion, agreed."

β€œThe commercial market is well stocked with merchandise that disparages prominent figures and groups, and the line between commercial and non-commercial speech is not always clear, as this case illustrates. If affixing the commercial label permits the suppression of any speech that may lead to political or social β€˜volatility,’ free speech would be endangered,” he wrote."

Flag Day (United States)

Flag Day (United States)

"In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress. Flag Day is not an official federal holiday. Title 36 of the United States Code, Subtitle I, Part A, CHAPTER 1, Β§ 11 is the official statute on Flag Day; however, it is at the president's discretion to officially proclaim the observance."

"On June 14, 1937, Pennsylvania became the first U.S. state to celebrate Flag Day as a state holiday, beginning in the town of Rennerdale."

"New York Statutes designate the second Sunday in June as Flag Day, a state holiday." This year, under state law in New York, June 11th was flag day.

June 7, 1965 – Griswold v. Connecticut Decided

June 7, 1965 – Griswold v. Connecticut Decided

"Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965),[1] is a landmark case in the United States in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Constitution, through the Bill of Rights, implies a fundamental right to privacy. The case involved a Connecticut "Comstock law" that prohibited any person from using "any drug, medicinal article or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception." By a vote of 7–2, the Supreme Court invalidated the law on the grounds that it violated the "right to marital privacy", establishing the basis for the right to privacy with respect to intimate practices. This and other cases view the right to privacy as a right to "protect[ion] from governmental intrusion."

Although the Bill of Rights does not explicitly mention "privacy", Justice William O. Douglas wrote for the majority that the right was to be found in the "penumbras" and "emanations" of other constitutional protections, such as the self-incrimination clause of the Fifth Amendment. Justice Arthur Goldberg wrote a concurring opinion in which he used the Ninth Amendment in support of the Supreme Court's ruling. Justice Byron White and Justice John Marshall Harlan II wrote concurring opinions in which they argued that privacy is protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."

How Dangerous is Ammunition in a House Fire?

How Dangerous is Ammunition in a House Fire?

"Darren Stewart, a Fire Specialist with CAL FIRE, explains in the story that without a gun wrapped around it, there’s nothing to contain and direct the pressures created by the propellant in a cartridge igniting, and that the popping noise people hear when ammunition is burning is not the bullet flying away from the casing with any force--regardless of what you may have seen in the movies."