“The Wandering Dago food truck wants to park and sell
food at various events on New York State property. The state says no, because
the name is offensive. Does that violate the First Amendment?” The answer is
probably yes, says UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh at this link. He recently discussed the
free-speech issue in a pending court case called Wandering Dago Inc. v. N.Y. State Office of General
Services. The mere fact that a business’s name is
politically incorrect, or offends some patrons, is not reason enough to ban it,
as an appeals court ruled in holding the name
“Sambo’s” protected in Sambo’s Restaurants Inc. v. City
of Ann Arbor (1981). Of course, if it is offensive, the business
may lose customers as a result, especially if its name does not appeal to
patrons’ sense of humor.
Commercial speech is not the only speech that government
officials seek to restrict when it offends certain listeners. Such restrictions
are common in universities, even though the Supreme Court has indicated that
free speech is nearly as broad on campus as in society at large (in its
decisions in Papish v.
University of Missouri Curators, Healy v. James,
and Rosenberger v.
University of Virginia).
For example, Arizona State University has expelled a
fraternity for a racially-offensive Martin Luther King Day
party off campus.….To Read More…….
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