Insane Clown Posse (ICP) can continue its case against the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI. On September 17, 2015 the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Juggalo Plaintiffs do have standing to make their claim. (Standing is a three-part requirement for anyone who wants to file a lawsuit. First, they must have been harmed somehow. Second, the Defendant somehow caused that harm. Third, the harm can somehow be fixed by the court.)
A little background on this case. In 2011, the National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC), run by the FBI, released its 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment listing Juggalos as a “loosely-organized hybrid gang.” Fans of ICP call themselves "Juggalos." As a result of this listing, several fans and band members claim to have been harassed by law enforcement, lost work, and suffered other insults and injuries.
A lower court had thrown out ICP's case saying that the injuries they had claimed were actually committed by independent third-parties, not by the Defendants, DOJ and FBI. The Juggalos aren't suing the individual police officers who they claim harassed them. Basically the court said that they were suing the wrong people.
The Court of Appeals disagreed, saying that the claimed harm to the Juggalos was an indirect result of their being listed as a gang by the FBI and DOJ. This case makes it clear that harm to a person's reputation, and being stigmatized as a result, can equal a real injury.
This could be a big deal. Any person or organization that publishes disparaging information about people will have to be careful in case they are wrong, and that person ends up harmed because of the information. A good example: sites that list mugshot photos of recent arrests. I could imagine an innocent person, mistakenly arrested, suffering real harm because of the photo, and wanting to make someone pay.
The outcome of this case will be interesting, but just getting this far for the Juggalos means that other people harmed in similar ways, may find it possible to have their day in court too.