Iowa State students score one for free speech – STLtoday.com

In a case that free speech advocates are calling a victory for college students everywhere regardless of their political views, a federal appeals court on Monday ruled that Iowa State University cannot prevent a marijuana law reform advocacy group from distributing a T-shirt with the Iowa State University mascot on one side and a marijuana leaf on the other.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said ISU administrators including President Steven Leath, Senior Vice President Warren Madden and two others 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 students, Paul Gerlich and Erin Furleigh, planned in 2012 to print T-shirts depicting "NORML ISU" on the front with the "O'' represented by Cy the Cardinal, the university' mascot. On the back the shirt read, "Freedom is NORML at ISU" with a small cannabis leaf above NORML.

Even though the university approved the group's original design that incorporated the mascot and a marijuana leaf, Leath and the others blocked it claiming it violated the school's trademark policy after getting pressure from conservative lawmakers and an appointee of Republican Gov. Terry Branstad who saw a story about the group's planned T-shirt in a Des Moines Register article.

The students sued in July 2014 and early last year U.S. District Judge James Gritzner ruled the school's policy violated the students' free speech rights and barred the university from prohibiting printing the T-shirt. Leath and the other ISU administrators appealed.

The appeals court agreed with Gritzner's ruling.

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Iowa State students score one for free speech - STLtoday.com