High Stakes: Iowa Ends Up Paying $1M For Blocking Pro-Marijuana T-Shirts

The state of Iowa will be covering the bill in a protracted lawsuit over Iowa State University’s decision to bar a chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (“NORML”) from using the university’s trademarks on T-shirts. ISU students won approval in 2012 to use the ISU mascot bearing a marijuana leaf and the slogan “Freedom is NORML at ISU,” but the university reversed itself after an article on the story drew the ire of state legislators.  The students then sued the university, claiming school administrators infringed the First Amendment by imposing more stringent trademark policies “expressly to restrict” NORML’s pro-marijuana speech.  The trial judge and the Eighth Circuit both sided with the students, holding the administrators “at least implied that the additional scrutiny imposed on NORML ISU was due to the views for which it was advocating” and “were motivated at…

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