NORML ISU has been granted the right to print T-shirt designs with the ISU logo after a denial to a motion to stay from the university last Thursday.

This means the organization can go forward with plans to print T-shirts — something the group plans to take full advantage of.

Eric Cooper, faculty adviser for NORML ISU and associate professor of psychology, said the student group has had 19 designs approved for printing. He said they hope to print about 50 T-shirts for each design, equating to about 950 total.

Cooper said the organization was “very pleased” with the outcome and even decided to have a contest to come up with T-shirt designs.

“It’s been four years that we’ve been battling the university,” Cooper said. “We’re excited about the possibility to print T-shirts around campus.”

He said he hopes NORML ISU can start selling them as early as next week, which would be a “really good way of accomplishing the advocacy goals of the organization.”

The T-shirts would be sold as a part of a fundraiser for the student organization — with room to reprint the popular designs if necessary, Cooper said.

Cooper said he believes by initially denying NORML ISU and losing the case against the organization on Jan. 22, the ISU Trademark Office has essentially made it worse for itself, since it now has to be careful whenever it rejects a design in the future.

“If they met us halfway and let us make a T-shirt, they’d still be able to have control of the process,” he said. “Now they lost this court case, they’re in a bad situation because everyone who gets their design denied could claim discrimination based on personal bias.”

The motion to stay was filed by the defendants, the university, in order to prevent the group from printing T-shirts with the ISU logo after the initial case ruling on Jan. 22.

“Iowa State is disappointed the U.S. Court of Appeals did not grant the stay order and offered no explanation of their decision,” John McCarroll, the executive director of University Relations, said in a statement. “Our appeal of the U.S. District Court order of Jan. 22, 2016 is pending.”

However, the denial in the motion to stay was a victory for NORML ISU.

“We as alumni and current members of the student organization are not surprised by the court’s ongoing recognition of the need to protect constitutional student speech on college campuses,” said Josh Montgomery, an ISU alumnus who founded the student organization in 2012. “We believe the resolution is just and expect a similar conclusion in any forthcoming appeal of the decision.”

But the fight is far from over.

The appeal in the case is still ongoing in the federal court of appeals, and a verdict will most likely not be reached for about a year, Cooper said they were told by their lawyers, representatives from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

If the university loses the appeal, administration will most likely take it to the Supreme Court. NORML would do the same if it loses the appeal and hopes to win again, which Cooper said he believed could be explosive.

Cooper referenced a ruling by the Supreme Court on June 18 that had similar connotations as NORML’s case.

The case was fought between the state of Texas and an organization called the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), who designed license plates with the Confederate flag featured prominently. The state rejected the design, and SCV claimed it was a violation of their First Amendment rights.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state 5-4; the reasoning was that design was classified as government speech, since the flag was a representation of the government.

This argument is along the same lines as the university’s, Cooper said.

“The university really held the doctorate in this case since they had control over the trademarks of ISU, and they have to realize they don’t,” Cooper said. “Public administration can’t discriminate based on their own personal views, which is what happened here.”

Only a verdict in the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, located in St. Louis, will decide how this case goes forward. But until then, NORML ISU will print its controversial T-shirts, which students may see around campus in the near future.