Additional Information
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Incident Nature:
Recognized student group event
Other
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Incident Political Orientation:
Neither -
Incident Responses:
Litigation
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Incident Status:
In litigation Federal Court of Appeals
Settled
- No protest Occured
- Was Speech Code incident
Summary
NORML ISU is an officially recognized student organization at ISU. It is a student chapter of the national NORML organization and its purpose is to reform federal and state marijuana laws. The group was refounded in 2012. In October 2012, NORML ISU submitted a t-shirt design (T-Shirt Design #1) to the Trademark Office that had “NORML ISU” on the front with the “O” represented by Cy the Cardinal. On the back the shirt read, “Freedom is NORML at ISU” with a small cannabis leaf above “NORML.” The Trademark Office approved T-Shirt Design #1. Afterwards, a news article critical of the t-shirt design was published in a local newspaper. The administration at ISU then took action against NORML ISU in a variety of ways, instituting a review process that differed from the review process for all other student groups in terms of their t-shirt designs. The Court held that ISU engaged in impermissible viewpoint-discrimination.
