The U.S. Supreme Court, wrapping up its current term, has struck down California's ban on the sale of violent video games to children. The Supreme Court struck down a California law that would ban violent video game sales to minors. The court says the law infringes on the free speech of minors and the state cannot limit the ideas to which youngsters are exposed. The decision also struck down similar laws in other states. In 2005, California enacted a law that imposed a $1,000 fine on retailers any time they sold a violent video game to a minor.
The state cited social science studies that it said showed kids who play these games for many hours are desensitized to violence and become more aggressive in their behavior. But the U.S. Supreme Court rejected those arguments on Monday, and struck down the law.
Technically, the court was split 7-to-2, but the various concurring and dissenting opinions more closely resembled a 5-4 split.
Writing for five members of the court, Justice Antonin Scalia said video games are like books, plays and movies, expression protected by the First Amendment, and the government has "no free-floating power" to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed.
Since the founding of the republic, he said, the court has permitted restrictions on speech in only a few very narrowly defined areas — obscenity, incitement and fighting words. Violence cannot be "shoehorn[ed]" into any of these categories, Scalia said, even when the violent expression is consumed by children.
With great gusto, Scalia noted that there is "no shortage of gore" in the books parents routinely read to children. Grimm's Fairly Tales "are grim indeed," he observed; Cinderella's wicked stepsisters have their eyes pecked out by doves, and Hansel and Gretel kill their captor by baking her in an oven. In truth, said Scalia, California's ban on violent video games is just "the latest in a long series of failed attempts to censor violent entertainment for minors," be it dime-store novels, movies and even Superman comics, which, in their time, were portrayed as leading to juvenile delinquency.
The justifications offered in this case against violent video games, he said, are no better than those offered in the past against other forms of violent entertainment. "We do not mean to demean or disparage" parental concerns about violent video games, said Scalia, a father of nine and grandfather of 32. "Our task" is to determine whether the regulation of these games is valid under the First Amendment. "The answer plainly is no."
Joining him in the majority were Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — an ideological smorgasbord.
The state cited social science studies that it said showed kids who play these games for many hours are desensitized to violence and become more aggressive in their behavior. But the U.S. Supreme Court rejected those arguments on Monday, and struck down the law.
Technically, the court was split 7-to-2, but the various concurring and dissenting opinions more closely resembled a 5-4 split.
Writing for five members of the court, Justice Antonin Scalia said video games are like books, plays and movies, expression protected by the First Amendment, and the government has "no free-floating power" to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed.
Since the founding of the republic, he said, the court has permitted restrictions on speech in only a few very narrowly defined areas — obscenity, incitement and fighting words. Violence cannot be "shoehorn[ed]" into any of these categories, Scalia said, even when the violent expression is consumed by children.
With great gusto, Scalia noted that there is "no shortage of gore" in the books parents routinely read to children. Grimm's Fairly Tales "are grim indeed," he observed; Cinderella's wicked stepsisters have their eyes pecked out by doves, and Hansel and Gretel kill their captor by baking her in an oven. In truth, said Scalia, California's ban on violent video games is just "the latest in a long series of failed attempts to censor violent entertainment for minors," be it dime-store novels, movies and even Superman comics, which, in their time, were portrayed as leading to juvenile delinquency.
The justifications offered in this case against violent video games, he said, are no better than those offered in the past against other forms of violent entertainment. "We do not mean to demean or disparage" parental concerns about violent video games, said Scalia, a father of nine and grandfather of 32. "Our task" is to determine whether the regulation of these games is valid under the First Amendment. "The answer plainly is no."
Joining him in the majority were Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — an ideological smorgasbord.
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