Ryan Bomberger Appeals NAACP Censorship Ruling

Yesterday we posted a video of Ryan Bomberger’s appearance at the recent Values Voter Summit. Ryan rightly calls out the NAACP for being pro-abortion and for its apparent apathy toward the disproportionate rate of abortion among blacks. The NAACP sued him for copyright infringement and alleged that his parody of their logo might confuse people. The court sided with the NAACP and issued a gag order against him.

Life News reported on Ryan’s appeal of the ruling:

Now, attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom have filed an appeal on Bomberger’s behalf and on behalf of his pro-life organization, the Radiance Foundation, which filed its opening brief Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in a lawsuit against the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In April, a federal district court ruled that The Radiance Foundation engaged in trademark infringement after doing nothing more than posting an article online that parodied the NAACP’s name.

“No trademark law overrides the First Amendment freedom to comment upon the positions, policies and activities of groups like the NAACP. This type of speech has a very long history of protection,” said Charles M. Allen with the law firm Goodman, Allen, & Filetti and one of nearly 2,500 private attorneys allied with ADF. “The Radiance Foundation merely expressed its opinion of the NAACP’s activities in an article. The NAACP cannot use trademark law to shield itself from criticism by denying others the right to use its name when they are expressing their opinions.”

Ryan notes that others have publicly criticized the NAACP on abortion. Why go after him and his Radiance Foundation? The Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the town of Greece, New York, in a U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld prayer at council meetings, Christian business owners, and several Christian colleges challenging the Obamacare abortion pill mandate, represen

“Although other commentators had criticized the NAACP for its position on abortion, only the criticism leveled by Radiance caused people to complain to the NAACP about its position,” reads the filed brief. “However, no one expressed confusion about who the NAACP was, what its real name was, or who the articles were criticizing.”

The NAACP claimed to have no official position on abortion, but Ryan found evidence to the contrary. “The damage done is the loss of over 15 million black lives to abortion,” he told Life News. “How can the NAACP possibly claim neutrality over the abortion issue if they’re financially profiting from annual sponsorship from the nation’s largest abortion chain?”