A nonprofit foundation in Colorado has filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s stringent new gift ban, a constitutional amendment that voters approved overwhelmingly last November. The Boettcher Foundation, which awards four-year scholarships to high-school seniors, is seeking clarification of Amendment 41’s effect on merit scholarships.

The amendment was meant to prevent public officials from accepting gifts or favors, but it also could bar professors at public universities from accepting the money that comes with a Nobel Prize. The amendment could also block public employees’ children from receiving certain scholarships. Nearly half of the 72 finalists for Boettcher scholarships this year could be affected by the amendment, according to the Rocky Mountain News, a newspaper in Denver.

A spokesman for the state attorney general, John W. Suthers, however, told the newspaper that Mr. Suthers believed the Boettcher program was not affected by the amendment because the scholarship requires students to earn good grades and stay in Colorado. A gift is permitted if it requires future action, or if the recipient provides something in return.

Andrew Romanoff, a Democrat who is speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives, told the News he would like the Colorado Supreme Court to determine whether the legislature can “fix” an errant constitutional amendment.