[MCP] Court Says No to Slave Name

[John Lindsay]

Thanks to everyone who sent "Letters to the Editor" about a year ago on this topic, but only to have them rejected by the Lexington Herald Leader "because they were out-of-state."



John L.
 
Posted on Wed, Aug. 08, 2007

Court says no to slave name
JOCKEY CLUB ALLOWED TO REJECT 'SALLY HEMINGS'
By Brett Barrouquere
ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOUISVILLE --A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that a filly can't be named "Sally Hemings," after Thomas Jefferson's most famous slave and reputed lover. 

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled that the Jockey Club can legally bar horse owner Garrett Redmond from naming his 4-year-old horse after Hemings.
 
Judge Alice Batchelder, writing for the three-judge panel, said Redmond has other options that may be approved by the Jockey Club, which forbids horse owners from using names of famous or notorious people without special permission. The club's rules also say that "names considered in poor taste; or names that may be offensive to religious, political or ethnic groups" won't be approved.
 
"To be sure, the First Amendment protects horse owners' rights to free speech, and we do not foreclose Mr. Redmond indiscriminately from asserting that right, but the right to free speech is not absolute in all contexts," Batchelder wrote.
The Jockey Club is a private organization designated by Kentucky to track and approve names of race horses. Without an approved name, a horse cannot race at a Kentucky track.
 
Jockey Club president Alan Marzelli said yesterday that about a third of the 60,000 names submitted each year are rejected, mostly because they are identical or similar to names already used. But this is the first time a complaint over a name has sparked a major-legal battle, he said.
"Since we first denied this name, we've issued over 100,000 names," Marzelli said. "It's pretty silly. I can't think of another example in 24 years where we rejected a name and it started a fight. People just pick another name."
 
Attorneys for Redmond didn't return a call for comment.
The horse, now known as "Awaiting Justice," ran at Churchill Downs on July 1 and at Ellis Park in Henderson on July 25. She did not finish in the top three in either race.
 
In May 2005, Redmond sued the racing authority and the Jockey Club after his request to name the horse for Hemings was denied. Redmond argued that the denial had deprived him of constitutional rights. 


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