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Proud Boys Lose Their Trademark
To Black Church They Vandalized
A judge last week granted the trademark rights to the name “Proud Boys” to an African American church in Washington, D.C., that was vandalized by the right wing group.
Trademarks give the owners the right to collect royalties and compensation from anyone using the name for profit.
In essence, the court's ruling means the Proud Boys are likely to fund the church unless they change their name.
The ruling by Judge Tanya M. Jones Bosier of D.C. Superior Court bans the Proud Boys from selling merchandise with their name or symbols unless they get consent from the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Members of the group vandalized a Black Lives Matter sign in front of the church in December 2020. The church sued them, winning a $2.8 million judgment.
A court filing in the case says a group of the Proud Boys “leaped over Metropolitan AME Church’s fence, entered the church’s property, and went directly to the Black Lives Matter sign. They then broke the zip ties that held the sign in place, tore down the sign, threw it to the ground, and stomped on it while loudly celebrating.”
After failing to collect the $2.8 million, the judge granted the church the trademark rights. The church’s pastor is working with an attorney to figure out how to make money off the name and logo.
The logo consists of a black and yellow laurel wreath. Until now, the Proud Boys would put the logo and their organizational name on T-shirts and hats that they sold.
“For the first time in our nation’s history, a Black institution owns property of a white supremacist group,” a statement on the church’s website says.
Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was released from prison last month, said he would appeal the court’s ruling.
"This church has engaged in a campaign of harassment and falsehoods,” Tarrio wrote in a post on X. “We were subjected to unjust incarceration and mistreatment at the hands of our own government, leaving us no recourse.
Trump Appoints Himself as Chairman
Of Kennedy Performing Arts Center
President Donald Trump announced last week he is taking over as chairman of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in his latest shake-up of the Washington, D.C., establishment.
He said in a social media post that “we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., great again.”
He also said he is terminating members of the board of trustees, including its chairman.
He blamed “drag shows specifically targeting our youth” as part of the reason for his intervention in one of America’s preeminent performing arts centers.
“This will stop,” he said about the drag shows.
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Latest News
Lawsuits Increase to Oppose
Trump’s Government Restructuring
The number of lawsuits continues growing this week against President Donald Trump’s attempts to reorganize the government by shutting down agencies, laying off thousands of workers and cutting down grant programs.
A coalition of nonprofits won an initial victory last week with a federal court ruling that blocks one of Trump’s executive orders to pause trillions of dollars in federal funding.
Trump said he wanted to freeze the funding to review whether it represented worthwhile expenditures by the government. The nonprofits said the move could be disastrous for underprivileged persons.
U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan in Washington, D.C., wrote in her ruling, “Every day that the (funding) pause continues to ripple across the country is an additional day that Americans are being denied access to programs that heal them, house them, and them.”
More than a dozen federal lawsuits have already been filed against the Trump administration by nonprofits that include the American Public Health Association, the civil rights group Democracy Forward, the National Council of Nonprofits and the consumer rights group Public Citizen.”
Power the Civil Rights Work of Our Time
Each day members of our community are experiencing wage theft, the effects of gentrification, discriminatory policing, collateral consequences, marginalization in schools, and barriers to public accommodations.
We fight alongside people facing the effects of gentrification like Amira Moore. Our work empowers the people and communities who need it most, “We can do more than we think. There’s a path to equity, we just have to step to it.” –Ms. Moore
For more than 50 years, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee has been on the frontlines of the fight for civil rights in our community. We deploy the best legal talent, we tackle the tough cases, we fight, and we win.
Our work is as important today as it has ever been. Through your support, you can play a role in creating justice for thousands of marginalized members of our community. Together, we will dismantle injustice and pursue lasting change.
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Letters to the Editor
D.C. in Brief
Congressional Bill Introduced
To Strip D.C.’s Local Authority
Two members of Congress introduced a bill last week to repeal the Home Rule Act that gives Washington, D.C., legislative control over its own affairs.
The lawmakers cited the city's difficulty controlling crime, the District of Columbia Council's allowance for non-citizens to vote in local elections and corruption among officials as showing the need for Congress to exert more influence.
The bill uses the acronym BOWSER, named after Mayor Muriel Bowser. It stands for the Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident Act.
“The radically progressive regime of D.C. Mayor Bowser has left our nation’s capital in crime-ridden shambles,” said Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., in a statement.
He co-sponsored the bill along with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. They introduced it two days after the D.C. Council voted to expel Councilmember Trayon White on charges of taking bribes from a city contractor.
“Bowser and her corrupt Washington City Council are incapable of managing the city,” Ogles said. “As such, it seems appropriate for Congress to reclaim its constitutional authority and restore the nation’s capital.”
Approval of the BOWSER Act by Congress would have the effect of abolishing the District of Columbia’s government. Instead, Congress would make governmental decisions for the city’s roughly 700,000 residents.
The D.C. Home Rule Act of 1973 organized the city council and the mayor’s office. It allowed them to pass local laws, but with veto authority reserved for Congress.
Only rarely has Congress exercised its veto power over the D.C. Council.
New U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi
Announces Tough Enforcement Policies
Pamela Bondi got off to a hard-nosed start last week as the new U.S. attorney general by announcing plans to potentially prosecute the government attorneys who prosecuted President Donald Trump, by encouraging the death penalty in capital cases and by planning to sue local officials in sanctuary cities.
She pledged to “completely eliminate” drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations.
She also said in a memo that any Justice Department attorneys who decline to carry out Trump administration policies could be fired.
The next morning, the Justice Department sued the state of Illinois and city of Chicago for a sanctuary city policy that protects illegal immigrants from deportation.
Bondi also froze all Justice Department grant money to sanctuary cities whose police refuse to cooperate with immigration officials.
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Legal Briefs
We Could Use Your Help
Thousands of DC residents need a lawyer, but can’t afford one. They could be illegally evicted from their homes, lose custody of their children, experience domestic violence, and more, all because they lack legal representation.
You could make a difference. By making a donation to the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, you will provide free, high-quality, zealous legal representation to low-income DC residents.
Your support could prevent homelessness, domestic violence, hunger, or family separation. In fact, if just 10 people who see this ad give $28 to Legal Aid, it will be enough to staff an experienced attorney at the courthouse for a day.
That way, DC residents like Keith King (pictured above) can get the legal representation they need to win their cases. As Mr. King put it, if it wasn’t for his Legal Aid lawyer, “I would have been homeless again.”
Here is the link to the Legal Aid website for donations: https://www.legalaiddc.org/donate-to-legal-aid/
For more information, contact Rob Pergament at Legal Aid at rpergament@legalaiddc.org