A college bar near Arizona State University has sued Tempe, alleging city officials engaged in selective enforcement and defamed the business’s reputation after a series of underage drinking busts.
The federal lawsuit alleges Tempe Tavern, on the corner of McClintock Road and Apache Boulevard, was unfairly targeted by law enforcement in 2025, when authorities found about 400 underage drinkers at the bar.
A lawyer for the bar argues that Tempe officials sought to maliciously publicize the raids, and later link the bar to a deadly September hit-and-run by a teenage driver who’d been drinking at Tempe Tavern the previous night after sneaking past bar security with what appeared to be a genuine ID…