Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/16pdf/15-1293_1o13.pdf
Page Number: 13.0

Cite as:  582 U. S. ____ (2017) 

9 

Opinion of the Court 

disparage racial or ethnic groups.  The clause prohibits the 
registration  of  marks  that  disparage  “persons,”  and  Tam
claims that the term “persons” “includes only natural and 
juristic  persons,”  not  “non-juristic  entities  such  as  racial
and ethnic groups.”  Brief for Respondent 46.

Tam  never  raised  this  argument  before  the  PTO  or  the
Federal Circuit, and we declined to grant certiorari on this 
question when Tam asked us to do so, see Brief Respond-
ing to Petition for Certiorari, pp. i, 17–21.  Normally, that
would be the end of the matter in this Court.  See, e.g., Yee 
v.  Escondido,  503  U. S.  519,  534–538  (1992);  Freytag  v. 
Commissioner,  501  U. S.  868,  894–895  (1991)  (Scalia,  J.,
concurring in part and concurring in judgment). 

But  as  the  Government  pointed  out  in  connection  with
its petition for certiorari, accepting Tam’s statutory inter-
pretation  would  resolve  this  case  and  leave  the  First 
Amendment question for another day.  See Reply Brief 9.
“[W]e  have  often  stressed”  that  it  is  “importan[t]  [to] 
avoid[d]  the  premature  adjudication  of  constitutional
questions,” Clinton v. Jones, 520 U. S. 681, 690 (1997), and 
that “we ought not to pass on questions of constitutionality 
. . .  unless  such  adjudication  is  unavoidable,”  Spector 
Motor  Service,  Inc.  v.  McLaughlin,  323  U. S.  101,  105 
(1944).  See  also  Alabama  State  Federation  of  Labor  v. 
McAdory,  325  U. S.  450,  461  (1945);  Burton  v.  United 
States,  196  U. S.  283,  295  (1905).    We  thus  begin  by  ex-
plaining  why  Tam’s  argument  about  the  definition  of 
“persons” in the Lanham Act is meritless.

As noted, the disparagement clause prohibits the regis-
tration  of  trademarks  “which  may  disparage  . . .  persons, 
living  or  dead.”  15  U. S. C.  §1052(a).    Tam  points  to  a 
definition  of  “person”  in  the  Lanham  Act,  which  provides
that  “[i]n  the  construction  of  this  chapter,  unless  the 
contrary  is  plainly  apparent  from  the  context  . . .  [t]he 
term  ‘person’  and  any  other  word  or  term  used  to  desig-
nate  the  applicant  or  other  entitled  to  a  benefit  or  privi-