It’s a sad day for those who are down with the clown, as a federal appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Insane Clown Posse to try and stop the FBI from labeling the group’s fans—Juggalos—as a “loosely-organized hybrid gang.” The rap duo initially filed their lawsuit a few years ago, but a judge threw it out because the FBI’s reports on gangs don’t actually mean anything specific, so while ICP may not want its fans referred to as a gang, it doesn’t necessarily mean the government is trying to shut them down. This year, Insane Clown Posse decided to protest the Department Of Justice’s gang designation by organizing a Juggalo march in Washington D.C. to try and show people that they’re not as scary as their face paint might suggest.
Unfortunately, the public relations move seems to have failed, as The New York Post says that the appeals court dismissed ICP’s lawsuit against the FBI for similar reasons as last time. Once again, the court said it couldn’t review the decision because the FBI’s gang designation wasn’t a “final agency action” and therefore didn’t really involve the organization doing anything. That won’t do much to appease ICP and the fans who say they were unfairly profiled by cops who really thought their clown paraphernalia was related to some violent gang activity, but that must come with the territory when your whole aesthetic is “murder clown.”