Virginia officials are appealing a federal ruling that overturned the state's decades-old ban on alcohol-related advertising in college newspapers.

Attorney General Bob McDonnell filed a notice of appeal of U.S. Magistrate Judge M. Hannah Lauck's ruling, according to a spokesman for his office.

The Cavalier Daily at the University of Virginia and The Collegiate Times at Virginia Tech sued the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, claiming that the ban violates student publications' constitutional right to free speech and hampers their ability to make money.

The ABC board enacted the ban to curb underage drinking, but Lauck ruled in March that there was no evidence that the measure did that.