State decides not to appeal Act 199 decision

The Pitt News will likely begin publishing alcoholic beverage ads as soon as the first print… The Pitt News will likely begin publishing alcoholic beverage ads as soon as the first print issue of the fall semester.

Pitt News Business Manager Bethany Litzinger said the newspaper could begin selling ads as soon as state representatives announced August 10 that they would not appeal a judge’s decision that the state’s ban of paid alcohol ads in student newspapers was unconstitutional.

“The [U.S.] Supreme Court has been reluctant allow prohibition against one segment of the press,” Connolly said in explanation.

A federal appeals court decision, released July 29 in favor of The Pitt News, concluded the Pitt student newspaper’s five-year battle to overturn a law barring university-affiliated publications from publishing paid alcoholic beverage advertisements.

The decision stems from an amendment to Pennsylvania’s Liquor Code, passed in 1996, prohibiting college-affiliated media from carrying advertisements for alcoholic beverages. The Pitt News claimed that the first amendment’s provision for freedom of the press protected publication of alcoholic beverage ads.

In an opinion written by Judge Samuel A. Alito for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a three-judge panel held that “the First Amendment precludes the enforcement of the law in question against advertisers in The Pitt News.”