Last year the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission ruled a beer label designed by cartoonist Ralph Steadman was in bad taste and rejected the Flying Dog brewery’s use of that label. Now a U. S. District Court has judged Flying Dog has a First Amendment right to use the label.
On May 13, U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle ruled in favor of Flying Dog Brewery. The craft brewery had filed a lawsuit against the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission, calling its regulation allowing the ban of labels commissioners feel are “undignified, immodest or in bad taste” a violation of the First Amendment.
Boyle ruled in favor of the craft brewery, finding that the regulation was vague and overbroad, violating the free speech rights of Flying Dog and its competitors. The ruling forces North Carolina to remove the current regulation so they are unable to reenact a similar directive again.