Native American group vows Supreme Court fight over woke New York mascot ban

A Native American-backed advocacy radical warring for practice successful schools, including Massapequa High School, announced past Wednesday that it is prepared to instrumentality its lawsuit to the Supreme Court pursuing a little tribunal dismissal past November.

The Native American Guardian’s Association (NAGA) argued that the New York Board of Regents’ 2023 regularisation banning the usage of Native names oregon imagery by nationalist schools is discriminatory and violates the 14th Amendment’s warrant of adjacent attraction nether the law. 

"Today, we instrumentality the adjacent measurement successful our travel to the United States Supreme Court, which is the lone logical decorativeness line," NAGA counsel Chap Petersen said successful a statement. "The ‘Native Name Ban’ laws are some violative and plainly unconstitutional. Their precise beingness is an embarrassment to each Americans, arsenic good arsenic the Native community."

NAGA has stated that its broader extremity is to destruct specified bans nationwide, including restoring names similar the "Fighting Sioux" successful North Dakota.

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A mural for the Massapequa Chiefs schoolhouse sports teams is seen painted connected a gathering adjacent to the precocious schoolhouse successful Massapequa, New York, U.S., May 1, 2025.  (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton)

"Winning this lawsuit should pb to the wholesale voiding of ‘Name Ban’ laws, including the cancellation of the ‘Fighting Sioux’ sanction and awesome successful North Dakota," NAGA President Clayton Anderson, who is enrolled successful the Hidatsa Tribe, said successful a statement.  

After the United States District Court dismissed its lawsuit connected Nov. 14, the enactment said it would entreaty to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, viewing it arsenic a measurement toward taking the lawsuit to the Supreme Court.

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A marquee extracurricular the Massapequa High School is backdropped by a "Chiefs" mascot mural, successful Massapequa, N.Y., Friday, April 25, 2025.  (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

In the announcement, NAGA said the New York prohibition is "misleadingly titled" the "mascot ban," arguing that it unfairly targets Native Americans portion nary akin prohibition exists for different taste names specified arsenic the "Vikings," "Patriots" and "Yankees," which are commonly utilized for squad names and symbols.

"It had thing to bash with mascots, it was virtually trying to eradicate immoderate representation of a Native American from a New York schoolhouse and Massapequa," NAGA lawyer Chap Petersen said successful a post. 

The relation described the prohibition arsenic a race-based classification and argues that the prohibition should beryllium taxable to "strict scrutiny," requiring the authorities to warrant the instrumentality nether strict ineligible standards.

The University of North Dakota's Fighting Sioux logo astatine Ralph Engelstad Arena successful 2010. (AP Photo/Dave Kolpack, File)

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"They’re lone targeting 1 group, 1 ethnicity, to accidental you can’t beryllium recognized, you can't beryllium celebrated by the teams," Peterson added. "That’s a usurpation of the 14th amendment, which prohibits radical favoritism and gives each radical adjacent extortion nether the instrumentality careless of contention oregon ethnicity."

In November, a justice dismissed NAGA’s case, citing "lack of standing," meaning the tribunal determined that NAGA did not person the ineligible close to situation the rule. NAGA, however, argues that the justice utilized this to sidestep the ruling connected whether the instrumentality was fair.