Kasky was born in
Stamford, Connecticut and graduated from
Wesleyan University and
Yale University. He moved to
San Francisco in the 1970s and headed the San Francisco Ecology Center, and later the Fort Mason Center. Kasky currently serves as a co-director at the Green Century Institute. Kasky is a former amateur and semi-professional baseball player, who retired from baseball in 1997. He is also an active wilderness backpacker, with extensive experience in the back country of the High Sierra.
Kasky v. Nike, Inc. Kasky filed a lawsuit in
California regarding newspaper advertisements and several letters Nike distributed in response to criticisms of labor conditions in its factories. Kasky claimed that the company made representations that constituted
false advertising. Nike responded that the false advertising laws did not cover the company's expression of its views on a public issue, and that these were entitled to
First Amendment protection. The local court agreed with Nike's lawyers, but the
California Supreme Court overturned this ruling, claiming that the corporation's communications were
commercial speech and therefore subject to false advertising laws. The
United States Supreme Court agreed to review the case (Nike v. Kasky) but sent the case back to trial court without issuing a substantive ruling on the constitutional issues. The parties subsequently settled out of court before any finding on the accuracy of Nike's statements, leaving the California Supreme Court's denial of Nike's immunity claim as precedent. The case drew a great deal of attention from groups concerned with
civil liberties, as well as
anti-sweatshop activists. ==References==