The state of Virginia cannot ban student newspapers from accepting alcohol ads, a federal judge has ruled.

The Student Press Law Center reported April 1 that U.S. District Court Judge M. Hannah Lauck ruled that the ban in the Virginia Administrative Code on all but limited references to alcohol in restaurant ads violated the First Amendment rights of students. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia on behalf of two college newspapers.

The court also struck down a law that limited advertisers to certain words and phrases when describing their drinks and establishments. Lauck said that the state failed to demonstrate how allowing phrases like "mixed drinks" and "exotic drinks" was "more temperate" than banned phrases like "happy hour."

Similarly, Lauck said that there was little evidence that the ban on advertising alcohol in college publications prevented underage or excessive drinking, especially when weighed against the infringement on student free-speech rights.

Virginia Tech University's Collegiate Times and the University of Virginia's Cavalier Daily, the parties to the ACLU lawsuit, estimated that they lost $30,000 annually in ad revenue because of the ban. Elizabeth Mills, editor in chief of the Cavalier Daily, said the court's ruling was "a long time coming, but I am very pleased to see it through."

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a similar ban in Pennsylvania in 2004.