The U.S. Supreme Court will hear Vidal v Elster, 22-704, on November 1, Wednesday. The issue is the federal trademark law, the Lanham Act, and whether an individual should be permitted to trademark the political slogan “Trump Too Small” for use on T-shirts he sells. The Lanham Act does not permit trademarks that mention a living person without his or her permission. But the Federal Circuit had struck down that law on First Amendment grounds.

Public Citizen has filed this amicus curiae brief, which argues that the Supreme Court should rule that trademark law cannot be used to trademark political slogans. If a trademark is granted for political slogans, that restricts the ability of non-trademark holders to voice such political slogans.

If the Court writes an opinion on that point, there might be an impact on the Libertarian National Committee’s attempts to use trademark law to adjudicate intra-party disputes.

The upcoming U.S. Supreme Court opinion might also influence the outcome of Mazo v Way, the New Jersey lawsuit against the state law restricting ballot slogans on primary ballots. The New Jersey law does not allow a slogan that mentions a living individual with that individual’s permission.