Supreme Court Protects Violence - - - In Video Games

The Supreme Court has struck down a California law that barred the sale of violent video games to minors as an unconstitutional infringement on free speech. Justice Scalia writing for the majority said: 

“Like the protected books, plays and movies that preceded them, video games communicate ideas — and even social messages — through many familiar literary devices (such as characters, dialogue, plot and music) and through features distinctive to the medium (such as the player’s interaction with the virtual world) . . . That suffices to confer First Amendment protection.”

Grand Theft Auto appears was compared (and protected) under the same principles that shield the gory elements of stories like Hansel and Gretel in Grimm's Fairy Tales. See more complete coverage by going to this LINK at The New York Times.

Supreme Court to Hear Constitutional Arguments Over Violent Video Game Law

As reported in the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog and elsewhere, the U.S. Supreme Court announced on April 26, 2010 that it will review the constitutional free speech challenge to a California law that blocks the sale of violent video games to minors.

The WSJ Law Blog reported:

California’s law, originally slated to go into effect in 2006, would have prohibited the sale or rental of violent games — those that include “killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting an image of a human being” — to anyone under 18. It also would have created strict labeling requirements for video game manufacturers. Retailers who violated the act could have been fined up to $1,000 for each violation.

Makers of video games, including Electronic Arts Inc.,Microsoft Corp., Sony Corp. and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., the maker of “Grand Theft Auto” games, challenged the law as an infringement of free-speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.  The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled earlier that the state had not produced sufficient evidence to establish the harm caused to minors.  In appealing this ruling, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown argue that violent video games are like sexually explicit material, which the state may prohibit.  Governor Schwarzenegger issued a statement saying, in part:

“We have a responsibility to our kids and our communities to protect against the effects of games that depict ultra-violent actions, just as we already do with movies”

Governor Schwarzenegger is well known for his acting career in films like "Conan the Barbarian" and the "Terminator" series, so one would think that he knows something about violent videos.  It will be interesting to see what questions the Supreme Court Justices ask during oral argument.