More than six months ago, the United States Supreme Court decided to hear arguments on both sides of Swartzenegger v. EMA. The case is believed to be the greatest legal challenge the industry has faced, with the potential for massive media censorship on the line. If the Court decides in favor of the plaintiff, video games would be federally recognized within the same category as pornography, an entertainment without the strong first amendment rights of movies or music.
Initial impressions seemed to favor the games industry, with Justice Anton Scalia offering a now famous rebuttal to a plaintiff’s testimony. However the lengthy decision period on the case so far, one of the longest of the past year, seems to have cast doubt as to the direction of the proceedings. According to ECA’s Hal Halpin (via Twitter), a final decision is expected this Monday. Keep it tuned to Elder Geek for all the news on what could be a major turning point for video games as we now it.
What do you think the verdict will be, EGs? Will it affect your gaming lifestyle? Comment below!
Well I will tune in to see the development. If I would guess anything, the Supreme Court will probably over turn the California Law and find it unconstitutional as they didn’t provide enough evidence to make their case. They are especially concerned about First Amendment cases such as these.
Anyone remember the Pentagon Papers and how Nixon wanted to stop journalists from printing those stories because it would embarrass Nixon? Yeah, this is in a similar fashion. Nixon didn’t provide enough evidence that the papers would cause a harm to U.S. national security, and so journalists could continue to print the stories.
Well this is all my assumption from taking a mass media law class for my journalism studies, so we will see what happens (new judges tend to change how the Court operates).
Yeah, it is a good day.
They shot down the law as the law only targeted violence which is protected under the First Amendment. Now if the law was targeting games in a sexually obscene manner, then there would be a whole different situation.
Mere violence cannot be censored by the government, but sexual and excretory obscenity can.