Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association
Case Date: 06/27/2011
|
Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (formerly titled as Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association)[2] is a landmark Supreme Court of the United States case that struck down a California law enacted in 2005 that bans the sale of certain violent video games to children without parental supervision.[3] In a 7-2 decision, the Court upheld the lower court decisions and revoked the law, ruling that video games were protected speech under the First Amendment as other forms of media.[1]
California Senator Leland Yee introduced the original law in 2005, believing a connection between violent video games and aggressive behavior in children, and sought to regulate the voluntary video game industry ratings review system, the Entertainment Software Rating Board. Though similar laws were passed in other States, they were challenged by video game industry groups like the Entertainment Software Association, and defeated in lower courts. The California law was similarly blocked and ruled unconstitutional in lower courts, but then-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger continued to take the case to the Supreme Court in 2009, which the Court accepted. Oral arguments were heard in November 2010, with the decision announced in June 2011.
Though the ruling was seen as a victory for the video game industry to classify their products as protected works as with films, books, and television, both concurring and dissenting opinions from the Court suggested that the issue may need to be re-examined in future case law, considering the disparate community standards treatment of violence compared to pornography, and the changing nature of video games with continually improving technology. Some video game analysts have seen the Court's decision as a wake-up call for the industry to mature in light of the Court's opinions. Senator Yee and other state lawmakers have stated they will continue to seek a means to regulate video game sales to minors within the context of the Court's decision.
|