Student newspapers at Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia are suing for the right to publish ads for alcohol.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control on behalf of the papers.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond, charges that Virginia ABC regulations violate the First Amendment rights of Tech's Collegiate Times and UVa's Cavalier Daily.

Virginia law bars the advertising of specific alcohol products in all college papers. Restaurants that serve alcohol can still place ads in college media but are limited to general terms such as "beer," "mixed beverages" and "ABC on-premises."

The suit refers to other media, including The Roanoke Times, that are not restricted in the same way despite being available to people under 21.

"I find it offensive that professional newspapers have different restrictions when it comes to alcohol advertisements than college newspapers," said Ellen Biltz, the incoming editor-in-chief of the Collegiate Times.

Biltz said that more than 98 percent of the newspaper's revenues come from advertisements. The newspaper, which publishes four times a week during the school year, is distributed free and receives no funds from the university, Biltz said. The only circulation revenue is from a small group of subscribers.

The newspaper has had to turn down advertisers or change advertisements because of the regulations in the past, Biltz said. But she said the lawsuit isn't looking for money for advertising losses; it's about free speech above all else.

The advertising restrictions have been an issue among editors of the Collegiate Times for years, said Kelly Wolff, general manager of the Educational Media Company at Virginia Tech, the parent company of the newspaper.

The newspaper turned to the ACLU for legal support last year and threatened to sue Virginia ABC in September.

Becky Gettings, a spokeswoman for Virginia ABC, said last fall that it's illegal for advertisers to target people under 21 for alcohol sales, and college newspapers have readers who mostly are under 21. She would not comment Thursday on the lawsuit because she and the organization's board had not received it.

Biltz said the Collegiate Times received no response from Virginia ABC and decided to go ahead with the lawsuit. She added that members of the Collegiate Times staff have been in discussions with student media at other schools about the advertising restrictions, but the Cavalier Daily was not involved in the initial threat of legal action.

She's glad the UVa paper is now involved and said the impact of the lawsuit will go beyond Charlottesville and Blacksburg.

"This isn't just for our newspaper," Biltz said. "It's a violation of the rights of all the college publications."

Rebecca Glenberg, the ACLU's legal director, said a federal appeals court overturned a similar restriction in Pennsylvania in 2004. Virginia ABC has 20 days to respond to the lawsuit, she said.