Collegiate Newspapers Lose Bid to Take Alcohol Ad Ban to Supreme Court

The Supreme Court refused to hear a case brought by student newspapers in Virginia challenging a state ban on alcohol advertising in their pages, The Roanoke Times reported Nov. 30.

The Collegiate Times of Virginia Tech and The Cavalier Daily of the University of Virginia sued the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) in 2006, challenging state regulations that outlawed most alcohol advertising in newspapers serving college students under 21. They argued that the regulations violated their First Amendment rights, Student Press Law Center reported June 9, 2006.

The two student-run newspapers brought their suit with help from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). They won their first case in federal district court, said ACLU attorney Rebecca Glenberg. She said the court found “no evidence that the regulation directly and materially advanced the government's interest in diminishing underage drinking and binge drinking on college campuses.”

According to Glenberg, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, ruling that “as a matter of common sense the regulation was effective.” She added that it did not cite any evidence for its opinion.

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the newspapers' appeal, the case will return to the district court, where Glenberg said the ACLU would add new lines of argument.

According to The Roanoke Times, the ACLU plans to argue that the Viriginia ABC's regulations discriminate against a “narrow segment of the media – in this case student media” and are unconstitutional because the readers of the two papers are mostly over 21 and of drinking age.