PORTLAND – The Maine Civil Liberties Union wants Santa’s Butt in beer coolers by Christmas.

In what its staff attorney called a case of government censorship, the MCLU on Thursday sued the Maine Bureau of Liquor Enforcement in federal court over the agency’s refusal to let a specialty beer distributor sell three imported brews because their labels were deemed “undignified and improper.”

One beer features Santa Claus on its label, while the others feature artwork that includes depictions of bare-breasted women.

“There is no good reason for the state to censor art, even art found on a beer label,” Zachary Heiden, staff attorney for the MCLU, said Thursday in a news release announcing the lawsuit. “Artistic expression is entitled to the highest level of protection under the First Amendment.”

Efforts to reach the Bureau of Liquor Enforcement were unsuccessful Thursday afternoon.

Heiden filed the lawsuit on behalf of Shelton Brothers, a specialty beer distributor based in Belchertown, Mass., after the bureau denied in a letter dated Sept. 20 the company’s request to sell Santa’s Butt Winter Porter, Les Sans Culottes and Rose De Gambrinus. The bureau found the labels on the beer bottles violated a rule related to advertising and signs.

“Advertisements of liquor shall not contain any undignified or improper illustration” is one of 14 rules with which distributors and distillers must comply.

The letter did not elaborate on why the labels were rejected.

The bureau’s policing of the illustrations used on the labels raises First Amendment concerns, according to the MCLU, because those illustrations have expressive value distinct from the beer they advertise.

All three labels were approved by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to the lawsuit. The ATF standard requires that labels do not contain any statement that is obscene or indecent.

“These illustrations have been used on beer sold across the country,” said Daniel Shelton, who works with small-craft breweries around the world to import their products to the U.S.

“I can’t imagine why Maine would object to Santa Claus,” he said in the MCLU news release.

It turns out that New York’s Liquor Authority objected to him, too, and earlier this year refused to allow Santa’s Butt and five other Christmas-themed beers to be sold in the Empire State.

The Liquor Bureau reversed its decision earlier this week after Shelton Brothers sued the state.

The Santa label at issue in Maine shows Santa Claus viewed from behind while looking over his shoulder, according to court documents. He is depicted holding a pint of beer in one hand and a list in the other while sitting on a barrel, which appears to hold about 126 gallons, or a butt of beer.

The intent is to “produce an amusing pun,” and humor is a protected form of expression, according to the lawsuit.

Another rejected label is illustrated with a detail of Eugene Delacroix’s famous painting, “Liberty Leading the People.” The 1830 oil depicts Liberty as a bare-breasted woman holding the French revolutionary flag in one hand and a bayoneted rifle in the other. The painting that the label for the blond French ale was taken from has been hanging in the Louvre for more than 100 years.

The artwork on the third label – Rose de Gambrinus, a Belgian beer -is based on a watercolor painting by Raymond Coumans, a renowned Belgian artist, according to court documents. The painting depicts a legendary King of Flanders strongly associated with beer and brewing with a nude female figure on his lap.

The MCLU is asking the federal court to overrule the state agency so the beer can be sold during the holiday season.

“Freedom of expression is not just an abstract principle,” MCLU Executive Director Shenna Bellows said Thursday. “It protects the books we read, the art we see, and the beer we drink.”