Many years ago, Iowa State University banned a shirt made by its very own NORML chapter because it had a marijuana leaf as a part of its design. However, when they did this, the administration undoubtedly did not see that they would be attacked in a federal court years later for their censorship.
Yet a ruling that was decided earlier in January by James Gritzner, United States District Court judge, claimed that the actions of Iowa State University state have been unconstitutional and that the group may be subject to some finances for the infringement of its rights. This all began in 2012, when the Iowa State University trademark office approved of the group’s submission which had the mascot on the front with a cannabis leaf on the back with the quote, “Freedom is NORML at ISU.”
But there were no worries about the marijuana leaf on Iowa State University apparel at first. This was clearly not the case once an article was released in The Des Moines Register, along with pictures of students wearing the clothing. Eventually, this began to attract attention throughout the country. State lawmakers started stirring raucous ver the shirt and Governor Branstad began an entire witch-hunt to learn how the image of a cannabis leaf found itself on the shirt of an actual university.
In great fear, university administrators worked their hardest to stop the organization from making any more apparel with pot leaves on them. In addition, they changed the rules to ban the marijuana leaf from any future designs on any apparel. During the lawsuit, “which is a part of the Stands Up For Speech Litigation Project, students Erin Furleigh and Paul Gerlich argued that Steven Leath, Warren Madden, Thomas Hill and Leesha Zimmerman” went against their constitutional rights when they did not allow the group to use the cannabis leaf only after there was a ton of political debate began to center around the original decision.
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