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.
A separate lawsuit filed in Maricopa County superior court accuses Tempe police of failing to respond to a request for the hit-and-run police report, which lawyers for the bar say would indicate that Tempe Tavern was just one of many stops made by the underage teen before the deadly crash.
According to the lawsuit, the Tempe Tavern’s gross sales are 10% of what they were before the raids took place.
In a statement, the city of Tempe referred to the claims in the lawsuit as false and said the bar’s “actions and continued blatant disregard for the law and public safety speak for themselves.”
