Why someone would want to name their band a derogatory racial slur or something like this is beyond me, but when the USPTO said ‘no’, a band sued.
For those of you who may not know, the Supreme Court is our highest judiciary, and the D.C. court of appeals operates directly underneath. In the United States, all federal courts have jurisdiction over all copyright, trademark, and patent laws within our country. Individual states (like New York, or Texas, or California) within the country do not deal with copyright issues.
I kind of agree with the USPTO rejecting the band names “Abort the Republicans” and “Democrats Shouldn’t Breed”. I’m on the fence about the Washington Redskins. I would probably say a band from Washington called the Washing Redskins would be different, but I still think we made a way bigger deal out of that than it actually us. I guess its has to do with a bands own decision to call THEMSELVES that vs an sports team owners decision to compel others to the comply with the name. Sort of like if a bunch of Japanese guys wanted to name their OWN band the Japsticks, then fine. What the hell. Let 'em. I knew a band in college that called themselves The Fuck Buckets and they were able to book themselves all over Lansing and Ann Arbor just because the name was so amusing.
Censorship vs first amendment are a crazy thing here in the US legal world!