Berry College, a private college in northwest Georgia, filed a lawsuit last month against Tennessee's Higher Education Commission in the U.S. District Court in northern Georgia, urging the court to prevent Tennessee from charging fees for billboard advertising in the state.

Earlier, the commission threatened to charge the college if it did not stop advertising in the state without registering and paying fees of more than $20,000 a year.

So far, the college has publicized only once in the state. Their billboard features two students posing in front of a college building with Berry's name, website and the phrase '26,000 acres of opportunity.'

Apart from Berry, the commission has blackmailed other out-of state colleges with bringing legal charges against them. Other institutions have removed their ads to avoid any civil and criminal sanctions.

The college also blames Tennessee's Postsecondary Education Authorization Act (PEAA), which requires postsecondary educational institutions to seek approval from the state agency, which includes the fees, if they wish to operate within the state borders.

''The overall effect of the Act, then, is to tax and chill the free speech rights of Berry and other out-of-state schools as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, in addition to violating their rights under the dormant Commerce Clause,'' Berry's complaint states. ''The effect of the PEAA is to unconstitutionally burden and tax the free exercise of truthful commercial speech by Berry and other out-of-state colleges and universities.''