While a t-shirt with a marijuana leaf on it doesn’t seem too controversial, things kind of change when you add a university’s logo to the t-shirt as well.
It seems that Iowa State University administrators are trying to avoid this and have prevented a t-shirt from being printed by a marijuana advocacy group that includes the school’s logo and marijuana leaf. Students Paul Gerlich and Erin Furleigh had planned to print T-shirts “NORML ISU” on the front with the university’ mascot, Cy the Cardinal back in 2012. On the back of the shirt it read, “Freedom is NORML at ISU” and there was a small cannabis leaf above NORML.
The University lost another appeal in federal court this week over the decision by administrators. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said for the second time this week that ISU administrators, which includes former President Steven Leath, have violated First Amendment rights of two students who were top officers of the ISU chapter of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws.
The court has also ruled that four administrators including the former Senior Vice President Warren Madden, former Senior Vice President for Student Affairs Tom Hill, and the director of ISU’s trademark office, Leesha Zimmerman, can be held personally responsible for violating the students’ constitutional rights. This now means there is potential for the students to seek monetary damages but it would come out of the pocket of Iowa taxpayers.
The university at first had approved the shirt but then blocked it and said that it violated the school’s trademark policy. The students sued in July of 2014 and it was only last year that U.S. District Judge James Gritzner had ruled that the administrators violated the free speech rights of the students. The judge barred the administrators from preventing the printing of the shirt. The University administrators had then appealed.
