Court overturns ban on alcohol ads in Virginia student newspapers

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Court overturns ban on alcohol ads in Virginia student newspapers
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/09/26/court-overturns-ban-alcohol-ads-virginia-student-newspapers

Legal Victory for Student Press

September 26, 2013
By Allie Grasgreen

Two major student newspapers in Virginia will be allowed to publish advertisements for alcohol brands and products after all, after a federal appeals court ruled that a state law banning the practice infringed on their First Amendment rights.

The decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is the latest development in a seven-year quest by the papers and the American Civil Liberties Union to overturn the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board’s rule, which forbade student newspapers from publishing any ads for alcoholic beverages, unless they were for a restaurant.

The court zeroed in on the difference between the Commonwealth of Virginia’s stated aim – to combat underage and abusive drinking on college campuses – with the papers’ readership. The law singled out student papers specifically because they purportedly cater to an underage population, but the majority of readers of both papers that won the lawsuit – The Cavalier Daily at the University of Virginia and The Collegiate Times at Virginia Tech University – are over the age of 21.

The Cavalier Daily, Collegiate Times gain ability to publish alcohol ads
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2013/09/cavalier-daily-gains-ability-to-publish-alcohol-ads

After seven-year legal battle, appellate court sides with University student paper, Virginia Tech publication

by Gaelyn Foster | Sep 26

After a seven-year legal battle, an appellate court ruled Wednesday in favor of The Cavalier Daily and Virginia Tech’s Collegiate Times, allowing the two publications to publish advertisements for alcoholic beverages in college newspapers.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Wednesday overturned a previous regulation by the Virginia ABC, which prohibited university newspapers in the state from printing advertisements for alcoholic beverages. The publications began to pursue a case in 2005, arguing the regulation infringed upon the newspapers’ first amendment rights, and officially filed a complaint with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union in 2006.

“We were contacted by the Collegiate Times in 2005, and they told us about this regulation,” said Rebecca Glenberg, legal director of the ACLU of Virginia. “We took a look at it and agreed that it was unconstitutional, and we wrote a letter to ABC and did not get a satisfactory response from them. So we filed a suit in 2006 on behalf of the Collegiate Times and The Cavalier Daily.”