U.S. Supreme Court justices and the lawyers arguing before them went out of their way Monday to avoid the four letters at the very core of the case of Iancu v. Brunetti: FUCT.

The issue in the First Amendment case was whether “FUCT,” the name of Erik Brunetti’s line of clothing, could be trademarked, or whether it would violate the Lanham Act, which bans registration of “immoral … or scandalous matter.”