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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, September 15, 2009

NFL: Indians ask Supreme Court if ’Redskins’ offends


Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A group of American Indians who find the Washington Redskins’ name offensive wants the Supreme Court to take up the matter.

The group on Monday asked the justices to review a lower court decision that favored the NFL team on a legal technicality.
Seven Native Americans have been working through the court system since 1992 to have the Redskins trademarks declared invalid. A U.S. Patent and Trademark Office panel ruled in their favor in 1999. But they’ve been handed a series of defeats from judges who ruled that the plaintiffs waited too long to bring their suit in the first place.
A lawyer for the group says he’d like to see the highest court decide whether the Redskins’ name defames Native Americans.