The U.S. Supreme Court has given civil rights-movement icon Rosa Parks the OK to sue hip-hop group OutKast [ tickets ] for using her name as the title of a 1998 hit song.

Parks, now 90 years old, is a black woman who became famous in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, AL, bus to a white man, and for rebuffing orders to move to the back of the bus. The incident led to a yearlong boycott of the bus system by African-Americans. Eventually, court rulings called for the desegregation of all U.S. public-transportation systems.

Parks sued OutKast in 1999, alleging that the duo's use of her name amounted to false advertising, infringed on her right to publicity, defamed her character and damaged a business relationship. The suit was dismissed later that year by a federal judge who found that OutKast had the right to use Parks' name under the First Amendment.

An appeals court later upheld the judge's ruling on the claims of defamation and interference with a business relationship, but reinstated the remainder of the suit. The appeals court ruling said that the defendants--which also include the bands label, distributor and producer--must prove that they had an artistic reason for titling the song "Rosa Parks."

The Supreme Court, without comment on Monday (12/8), refused to intervene in the suit, which means the case will return to a lower federal court judge.

"Rosa Parks" is a song about the entertainment industry. Parks isn't mentioned by name outside of the track's title. The song's chorus includes the lyric, "Ah-ha, hush that fuss / Everybody move to the back of the bus."