Simon Tam

Simon Tam is an award-winning author, keynote speaker, and First Amendment advocate, best known as the central figure in Matal v. Tam (2017), the unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down the disparagement clause of the Lanham Act and reshaped First Amendment protections in trademark law. The founder and bassist of The Slants, he spent eight years fighting a government denial of his trademark application before prevailing 8-0 at the Supreme Court.

His memoir, Slanted: How an Asian American Troublemaker Took on the Supreme Court, was named one of the best books on the Constitution of all time by BookAuthority. His work has been featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, NPR, BBC, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and his writing on free speech and intellectual property appears regularly in national and legal publications. He is the founder and Executive Director of The Slants Foundation, a nonprofit focused on culture, identity, and civic engagement.