A federal judge has blocked enforcement of a California law restricting violent video games, saying it violates the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of expression.
U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte ruled late Wednesday that the state law, signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in October, unconstitutionally restricts minors' rights to information and granted the video game industry's request for a preliminary injunction.
"Serious questions are raised concerning (California's) ability to restrict minors' First Amendment rights in connection with exposure to violent video games, including the question of whether there is a causal connection between access to such games and psychological or other harm to children," Whyte said in a 17-page opinion http://i.n.com.com/pdf/ne/2005/california_ruling.pdf?tag=mncol;txt
California is one of a string of states that recently have enacted similar laws restricting violent and sexually explicit video games--legislation that has been uniformly rejected by the courts. Laws in Illinois and Michigan were blocked by federal judges on First Amendment grounds in the last few weeks, and earlier laws in Indianapolis and Missouri's St. Louis County have also been shot down. The U.S. Supreme Court has not squarely addressed this topic, but it has said in other contexts that even minors have free-expression rights.
The California law said minors must be restricted from buying a "violent video game." That was defined as a game in which the player has the option of "killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting an image of a human being" in offensive ways.
The Entertainment Software Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group that filed many of the lawsuits, applauded the California decision.
"For the sixth time in five years, federal courts have now blocked or struck down these state and local laws seeking to regulate the sale of games to minors based on their content, and none have upheld such statutes," ESA president Douglas Lowenstein said in a statement.
Because Judge Whyte's decision is only preliminary, the final outcome could change after a full trial takes place. Attorneys for California are expected to cite research that claims to demonstrate a causal link between violent video games and harm to children.
Credit: Declan McCullagh
Itsa never going to happen like stated the law has tried to be pssed in the past and low and behold we still have our video games. politicians can suck it!
ReplyDeleteAll this is, is another attempt to blame something else for bad parenting. This law is just so those rich bastards can fill good about themself's and say its not there fault, little susie became a whore or little bobby shot his teacher in the head. It's all those damn video games fault!
ReplyDeleteI don't know you guys, Obama is the President, so it's a likely possibility that that could happend:/ Considering that slowly but surely our rights are being taken away. And some people don't even realize what laws are actually being passed disguised as something else. Now that is a true life Transformer!
ReplyDelete