A federal judge has joined the ranks of those refusing to use the Washington Redskins' nickname.
U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte issued a pretrial ruling last week in a lawsuit against the team in which he explicitly refused to use the Redskins name. In a footnote, he noted that his refusal to use the name was a conscious decision but did not elaborate.
Lawyers on the case told the Washington Post that Messitte also ordered them not to use the name in court hearings.
The name has come under fire as a racial slur. Last month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled that the name should be stripped of its trademark protection.
In his ruling, Judge Messitte allowed a former New York Giants linebacker, Barrett Green, to move ahead with a lawsuit claiming he was wrongly targeted in a bounty program run by a former Redskins assistant resulting in a career-ending knee injury. In doing so, however, he dismissed some of Green's specific claims.
