ACLU Takes College Alcohol Ad Ban to Supreme Court

By Chris Davis

RICHMOND, Va. -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia last month asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a case involving a ban on alcohol ads in Virginia college newspapers.

The ban has been in place for more than a half-century, but for the last four years, the Virginia ACLU has been fighting on behalf of Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia for their right to print the ads.

The ACLU took up the case in 2006, and now, after a win in U.S. District Court and a loss in the state's appeal, the schools are looking to the Supreme Court for a decision.

"The Supreme Court has said that government may not restrict commercial speech,"  Rebecca Glenberg said, legal director of the Virginia ACLU and lead attorney in the case, "unless the restriction is substantially and directly related to a substantial government interest."

According to the state, the restriction helps cut down on underage drinking and binge drinking on college campuses. But Glenberg said there's little evidence to support such a claim.

"The regulation does nothing to advance the government's interest," she said.

Ross Lawrence, editor-in-chief of the Cavalier Daily, the student newspaper at UVA, agreed with Glenberg that college publications are being unfairly targeted.

"When you really look at the market for us," Lawrence said, "it's not very different from what a lot of publications are doing."

Magazines like Sports Illustrated, Lawrence went on, draw bigger underage audiences than the Cavalier Daily.

Considering the large population of undergraduate upperclassmen, graduate students, faculty, staff, and community members, Lawrence said, "most people who read [the Cavalier Daily] are over 21 years of age."

The ad ban discriminates against college papers by not allowing them to print the same ads as other publications that reach the same audiences, Lawrence argued.

And that, said Glenberg, makes it a fundamental civil rights issue.

"We just think it's very important that student newspapers' First Amendment rights are respected to the same degree as other newspapers," she said.

But for now, the ban on alcohol ads in college newspapers is still on the books.

The Supreme Court will decide whether or not it will take the case for review probably within the next few months. If they do take it, justices should have a decision within the year.