Iowa State dropped its appeal to a four-year lawsuit that ruled in the favor of former Iowa State students and their cannabis T-shirts. 

The Gazette reported Wednesday that Iowa State will be dropping appeals to the lawsuit over events that took place in 2012 after the Des Moines Register published a front-page article featuring the T-shirt.

The T-shirt, which read “Freedom is NORML at ISU” with a cannabis leaf on the back, sparked criticism among legislators and citizens. 

After Iowa State’s trade marking office initially approved the T-shirt created by the ISU chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), the university rescinded the T-shirt design. 

In 2014, then-ISU NORML presidents Paul Gerlich and Erin Furleigh sued administrators at Iowa State—including then-President Steven Leath, then-Senior Vice President for Business and Finance Warren Madden, Director of Trademark Licensing Leesha Zimmerman and then-Senior Vice President for Student Affairs Tom Hill—on the basis that Iowa State infringed on their First and 14th Amendment rights.

“We dropped further appeal,” John McCarroll, executive director of Iowa State University Relations, told The Gazette. “The case still is pending, and no payments have been made.”

An appellate court in September 2016 ordered the university to pay the former students’ attorney fees and expenses totaling $193,259.51.

Steven Leath left Iowa State in May to become president of Auburn University.

In November 2012, a president’s cabinet meeting to discuss the T-shirt design took place and last around 10 to 15 minutes. Leath told the Daily previously that if there was a discussion it was very brief. 

“The meeting came to the conclusion that the students need to come up with new designs. The T-shirt they have now has been declared as unfit, and seen as Iowa State endorsing something [it is] not. The shirts are no longer in production,” according to an article published by the Daily on Nov. 28, 2012.

The ISU Trademark Guidelines were revised the year after the initial reaction to include a clarification that the ISU logo cannot be used to show endorsement of certain items such as illicit drugs and Iowa Sate’s name cannot be used to imply endorsement. 

A tier group for organizations was also created to restrict the use of the ISU logo to certain groups. The tiers system divided student groups into either “sponsored,” which received full permission; “recognized,” which received limited permission or “registered” organizations, who could not use the logo at all.