Here's how the court describes Robert Edward Forcion, Jr., aka NJWeedman:
Since 2009, he has managed a Rastafarian temple in Los Angeles and has operated a medical marijuana dispensary that he claims is lawful under the Compassion Use Act of 1996. . . . He has devoted his adult life to promoting the legalization of marijuana and, in 2000, was convicted in New Jersey of marijuana offenses. Forchion is currently facing trial in New Jersey on marijuana charges arising out of an arrest on April 1, 2010. He is free on bail.
Forchion has a national reputation as a marijuana advocate and is popularly known as NJweedman. He operates a Web site, "NJweedman.com," which discusses his efforts to legalize the drug.According to Evan Brown, the court denied his request to change his name to his domain name for three reasons: 1) People would be confused if NJWeedman.com ever lost his domain 2) His website "advocates illegal activities" and 3) He'd already been denied a request by New Jersey to change his name.
Whatever, he'll always be Njweedman.com to us. Maybe he could change his name to:
First: NJWeedman
Middle: Dot
Last: Com.
(You can just call him Mr. Com.)
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1 comment:
There are a few interesting issues and problems here. According to the Supreme Court, you have the right to conduct business under any name "at will", meaning any name, any time. A few legal exceptions have arisen none of which are touched on here. The thing this guy (henceforth known as NJWeedman.com) is doing is merely a formalization which makes it easier to conduct business.
1) whether people would be confused or not in some future hypothetical situation surely isn't the business of the state to determine or make decisions about. also, if he owns the domain the court has entirely ignored current factually pertinent data in favor of that future hypothetical data.
2) this one might hold water. some of the other exceptions which have been touched on can be roughly categorized as "intent to defraud", which doesn't apply here but it is a general legal principle that anything done as part of committing a crime is also illegal in that respect. however, it is entirely legal to conduct some marijuana-related business in California. is the board which determines whether someone's name is "appropriate" also the arbiter of the legality of anything which may be associated with that name?!
3) this is none of the business of the State of California.
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