Collegiate Times

On Thursday, the ACLU filed a challenge in U.S. District Court on behalf of both the Collegiate Times and the Cavalier Daily. Both newspapers are seeking to overturn 3 VAC 5-20-40, a Virginia law that prohibits alcoholic beverage advertisements in ?college student publications.?

The commissioners of the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Commission were named as defendants in the lawsuit, as were the Chief Operating Officer of the commission and the director of the Law Enforcement Bureau of the Commission.

?Virginia is only one of three states in the country with restrictions on alcohol advertisements in student publications. As far as I?m aware, this is the only time when the government can tell student media what not to print about a product that is completely legal,? said Kelly Wolff, general manager of the Educational Media Company at Virginia Tech, the parent company of the Collegiate Times.

The ACLU is challenging the law on the grounds that it violates the First Amendment by restricting what a newspaper can publish about a legal product.

?We?re very concerned that the regulations discriminate against a segment of the press, the student press,? said Rebecca Glenberg, lead counsel for the ACLU.

?We?re confident in this case,? she said about the possible outcome. ?A similar case was done in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals a few years ago, and the law was overturned there.?

?Our job for the state is to enforce the laws and regulations, period,? said Becky Gettings, a spokeswoman for the Virginia ABC in 2005.

VABC officials had not received notice of the complaint as of Thursday afternoon, according to a spokeswoman for VABC. The defendants named in the lawsuit could not be reached for comment.

That case, Pitt News v. Pappert, came about when The Pitt News, the student newspaper of Pittsburgh University, challenged a Pennsylvania law that prohibited advertisers from advertising in any publication that was ?published by, for or in behalf or any educational institution.? The victory came in 2004 after five years of legal battles, appeals, and numerous constitutional challenges.

Samuel Alito, then a judge on the appeals court and now a judge on the Supreme Court, ruled in favor of the newspaper, saying in the opinion of the court that the First Amendment precluded enforcement of the Pennsylvania law.

?The (case) in Pennsylvania was a more roundabout violation (of the First Amendment) ? the Virginia regulation is more straightforward,? said Mike Hiestand, legal counsel for the Student Press Law Center, a legal center not involved with the case.

Unlike the Pennsylvania case, the case against the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Commission is only beginning. ?We filed the complaint today (Thursday),? Glenberg said. ?After the defendants are served with the complaint, they have 20 days to respond before the trial enters the next phase.?

The lawsuit comes about as a result of the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Commission?s failure to respond to an ACLU letter sent to VABC on September 5, 2005, which requested that the VABC cease enforcing the law prohibiting alcoholic beverage advertising in collegiate student newspapers in Virginia.

?One of the things that will be pointed out (by the ACLU) is the average age of the reader,? Hiestand said of possible legal strategies. As for the VABC, ?they would argue that advertising encourages alcohol abuse and that the advertising encourages under-age drinking.?

With the outcome of the lawsuit still up in the air, both parties involved were reluctant to comment on possible outcomes. ?I don?t know that the impact (of a ACLU victory) is going to be immediate, but over time, (it) might provide more stable funding for student media (in Virginia),? Hiestand said.