Costs mount for Iowa State as it ends its appeal in free-speech lawsuit over pro-marijuana T-shirt

Iowa State University has ended its federal appeal over an administration decision nearly five years ago to stop a pro-marijuana student group from using the logo of Cy on T-shirts that featured cannabis leaves.

The next phase in the case is a hearing on how much, if any, damages will be awarded in the lawsuit filed in July 2014 by then-students Paul Gerlich and Erin Furleigh, both of whom were top officers in the ISU chapter of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws.

No date for the federal court hearing has been set.

Iowa State has been ordered by the federal court to pay Gerlich and Furleigh’s attorney fees and expenses of $193,259.51.

Iowa State also has incurred $8,161 in expenses defending the university’s top administrators in the lawsuit, a Des Moines Register review shows.

More than half of the costs — $4,500 — are related to transcribing depositions. The list of expenses was obtained through a public records request.

Lisa Zycherman, an attorney at the firm of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP that is representing Gerlich and Furleigh, said her clients were unavailable for comment.

In fall 2012, ISU’s Trademark Office approved the T-shirt design that included the words "Freedom is NormL at ISU." Cannabis leaves were printed over the word "NormL."

Several T-shirts were printed and one was displayed in a Des Moines Register photo, prompting complaints to ISU administrators from Iowa lawmakers and state officials.

Several weeks later, when the student group sought approval for the design so another batch of T-shirts could be printed, the request was denied.

The lawsuit was filed as part of the Stand Up for Free Speech Litigation Project overseen by the national organization Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

In early 2016, a U.S. district court judge ruled that Iowa State administrators, including then-president Steven Leath, violated the students’ free-speech rights and barred the university from prohibiting printing of the T-shirt.

Iowa State appealed twice, losing both attempts at getting the ruling overturned.

In June, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that the four administrators involved with the decision prohibiting the printing of the T-shirts — Leath, former Senior Vice President Warren Madden, former Senior Vice President for Student Affairs Tom Hill, and trademark office director — can be held personally responsible for violating the students' constitutional rights.

Iowa taxpayers would be responsible for paying any damages awarded by a federal jury.

Iowa law indemnifies state employees sued in federal court for actions related to their jobs.