The Proud Boys have lost control over their own name and logos. The far-right group can no longer legally use their name or symbols without permission from a church attacked by the group's members in December 2020. In 2023, a judge ordered the group to pay $2.8 million to the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, DC, for "hateful and overtly racist conduct," including the burning of a Black Lives Matter flag. But the Proud Boys never paid. To settle the judgement, therefore, the predominantly Black church sought to seize control of the group's trademarked name in the hopes of blocking it from selling or licensing merchandise. On Monday, a Washington judge ruled in the church's favor, reports the New York Times.
Not only can the church deny the group's use of its own name and logos, including a black and yellow laurel wreath, it can also move to seize money the group might earn in selling Proud Boys merchandise, per the Independent. The group's leader, Enrique Tarrio, who participated in the attack following a rally for President Trump and was just freed from prison on a pardon from the president, bashed the ruling as "a betrayal of justice" in a lengthy statement, calling on the judge to be impeached, per the Times. (More Proud Boys stories.)