Under the First Amendment, the government generally can't ban commercial advertising of legal behavior. That's true for alcohol as well as for other products. (Marijuana is different, because it's still illegal under federal law.) Thus, the Supreme Court has held, the government can't ban beermakers from indicating their alcohol percentage on their bottles, and can't ban markets from promoting the prices of their alcohol. The government argued that such advertising risked increasing alcohol consumption (for instance, by promoting "strength wars" for beer), but the Court rejected that rationale.
Yesterday, in GJJM Enterprises, Inc. v. City of Atlantic City (D.N.J.), a federal district court unsurprisingly applied the same to strip clubs promoting that you can bring your own beer and wine to them (wherever such BYOB policies are legal, as they are in New Jersey). Quite correct, I think.
Comments