The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling declaring the 2005 California law banning the sale and rental of certain computer and video games to minors unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds.  The ruling concluded that the California law did not survive the heightened scrutiny applicable to statutes regulating constitutionally protected speech.  The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) weighed in on the groundbreaking decision.

“The motion picture industry is no stranger to governments’ incursion on freedom of expression,” said Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America. “From the very inception of the movie industry, attempts to restrict speech have threatened the creativity of American movie-makers. We applaud the Supreme Court for recognizing the far-reaching First-Amendment implications posed by the California law.”

On October 7, 2005, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill into law that restricted the sale of computer and video games classified as “violent” to minors and required game manufacturers to affix a special label to all games deemed overly violent, beyond the Entertainment Software Rating Board rating previously made visible on each cover.  The Video Software Dealers Association, now known as the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA), was granted a permanent injunction on the law by U.S. District Court Judge Whyte.  The State of California appealed this decision to the Ninth Circuit Court, which ruled the law unconstitutional and sparked the state to bring the case before the U.S. Supreme Court. The MPAA joined a broad, industry coalition with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), Directors Guild of America, Inc. (DGA), Producers Guild of America (PGA), Screen Actors Guild (SAG), Writers Guild of America West, Inc. (WGAW), Independent Film and Television Alliance (IFTA), and National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) to file an amicus brief on EMA’s behalf.

About the Author

John Gaudiosi

Editor-in-Chief

John Gaudiosi has been covering videogames for the past 20 years for outlets like The Washington Post, CNET, Wired Magazine and CBS.com. He has focused on the convergence of entertainment and videogames for outlets like Video Business, Home Media Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Gamerlive.TV and is also a freelance game columnist for Reuters and writes for outlets like Forbes.com, NVISION, Official PlayStation Magazine, EGM Now, Geek Monthly, PrimaGames.com, and Yahoo! Games. John also serves as the video game expert for NBC in Washington D.C. and has produced videogame documentaries for The History Channel and Starz Entertainment. John was named one of the Top 50 Game Journalists in the world by Next-Gen.biz in 2007. He is the co-author of Scholastic Books' How to Get into Videogames, Prima Publishing's Madden: Twenty Years of Videogame Football and Electronic Arts: The Official History.