If he wins his case, radio stations will have to start referring to the Washington football team as ‘The-Team-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named.”

Andrew Desiderio at The College Fix has the story:

Activist Law Prof Petitions FCC to Deem ‘Redskins’ Obscene, Unlawful to Say On Air

An activist law professor has formally requested that the Federal Communications Commission deny the renewal of a Washington Redskins-owned radio station license, alleging the repeated use of the word “Redskins” amounts to obscenity akin to “profanity” and a “hate crime.”

John Banzhaf, a professor of public interest law at The George Washington University who has successfully lobbied the FCC in the past to force diversity regulations upon broadcasters, writes in his petition that those who repeatedly broadcast the team name are exacerbating “physical harm, bullying, and other adverse effects.”

“The agency would never countenance stations broadcasting words like ‘N*gga,’ ‘Sp*cks,’ ‘W*tB*cks,’ ‘F*gs,’ … even as the name of a team or a musical group,” the petition states. “If the N-word (like all the others) is impermissible because it offends many blacks, the repeated and unnecessary use of the R-word should also be because it similarly offends many Indians.”

But the fate of the petition remains in limbo. Although former FCC leaders said they believe the term could be officially dubbed “obscenity,” the current FCC chairman said it’s up to team owner Dan Synder to make that call.

“I think it would be great if the Washington football team would recognize those kinds of changes itself,” Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said. “I hope that this is something that if enough people express themselves, Dan Snyder can see which way things are going.”

But Banzhaf, in his petition that he provided to The College Fix, also accuses Snyder of “actively” encouraging and forcing WWXX-FM’s broadcasters to use “a derogatory racial and ethnic slur contrary to the public interest,” and said Snyder “uses this station to broadcast ‘an ethnic slur.’”

He charges that the FCC should deny the renewal of WWXX-FM’s radio license because the station is “deliberately, repeatedly, and unnecessarily” broadcasting “R*dskins.”