The Cavalier Daily and the Educational Media Company at Virginia Tech, the publisher of the Collegiate Times, filed a joint lawsuit today against the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control seeking the right to sell advertisements promoting alcoholic beverages in collegiate publications, claiming that current restrictions violate the First Amendment. The two organizations will be represented by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Rebecca Glenberg, legal director of the ACLU of Virginia, said her organization decided to represent the two collegiate based organizations because the ACLU thinks the collegiatenewspapers' rights are being "impaired."
"We certainly don't like to see a particular type of publication such as a college newspaper specifically targeted for content regulation," Glenberg said.
Current ABC regulations state that "advertisements of beer, wine and mixed beverages are not allowed in college student publications unless in reference to a dining establishment."
College publications may only use the terms "A.B.C. on-premises," "beer," "wine," "mixed beverages," and "cocktails" in advertisements for dining establishments; advertisements may not contain "any reference to particular brands or prices," according to the ABC rules.
Both Cavalier Daily Editor-in-Chief Michael Slaven and Ellen Biltz, incoming editor-in-chief of the Collegiate Times, said their newspapers began investigating the possibility of a lawsuit following a similar successful lawsuit in Pennsylvania several years ago.
Slaven and Biltz both noted their dissatisfaction with the differences in regulations governing college and professional publications.
"I think it's wrong that professional newspapers have different numbers of restrictions than we do," Biltz said.
Slaven said he does not see a distinction between the rights of college papers and those of local papers distributed in the same communities.
Current regulations have the effect of restricting revenue sources and can interfere with newspapers' goals and missions, Glenberg explained.
Slaven estimated that alcohol advertisements could account for between 5-7 percent of potential ads revenue, noting that drink specials for nearby bars could be "a major source of revenue for the paper."
Biltz agreed, noting that while revenue increases were not the motivation for initiating the lawsuit, revenue from alcohol-related advertisements could be substantial.
"Prohibiting us from running advertisements that refer to alcohol in some way stifles our revenue," Biltz said, noting that advertising accounts for 98.7 percent of her organization's revenue.
Glenberg said that while the government will likely cite an interest in limiting underage consumption of alcohol, she thinks it will be difficult to prove that the current restrictions truly advance the government's goal.
"Newspapers have very strong First Amendment rights to publish as they see fit," Glenberg said. "When the government limits those rights, [it must] show that the limitation directly advances a substantial government interest."
Glenberg also noted that, in the case of both The Cavalier Daily and the Collegiate Times, the targeted audience includes not only undergraduates not of legal drinking age, but also older undergraduate students and graduate students as well as staff and faculty.
Both Slaven and Biltz said they were not worried about a rise in underage drinking as a result of alcohol advertisements in their publications.
"It's not like we would be bringing them something they don't already see," Slaven said.
Glenberg said it is difficult to predict a future timeline for the lawsuit, as it could take "anywhere from 6 months to 3 years" to resolve the issue depending on whether appeals are involved.
Glenberg noted that once ABC is served the complaint, it will have 20 days to respond.
ABC spokesperson Kristy Smith declined to comment on the suit, as the ABC board had not received any paperwork about the lawsuit at the time of publication.
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