The ruling benefits the NFL's Washington Redskins, whose trademark was canceled based on the same law in a separate proceeding. No one actually believed that the term "Red Skins" was disparaging anyway. The ruling will permit the University of Illinois football team to re claim their Illini mascot.
"Holding that the registration of a trademark converts the mark into government speech would constitute a huge and dangerous extension of the government-speech doctrine, for other systems of government registration (such as copyright) could easily be characterized in the same way," Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion.