The Supreme Court says California cannot ban the rental or sale of violent video games to children.The First Amendment isn't always pretty and sometimes it allows stuff that we don't like. That's why kids come with parents who can make those judgments that are no business of the state.
The high court agreed Monday with a federal court’s decision to throw out California’s ban on the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Sacramento said the law violated minors’ rights under the First and Fourteenth amendments.
The law would have prohibited the sale or rental of violent games to anyone under 18. Retailers who violated the act would have been fined up to $1,000 for each infraction.
The court on a 7-2 vote said the law was unconstitutional.
More than 46 million American households have at least one video-game system, with the industry bringing in at least $18 billion in 2010.
Good call, Justice Scalia and the other six that joined that opinion.
In another case, the court threw out Arizona's campaign finance law, stating that it imposes a "substantial burden on speech". Another good call, though this one was 5-4.
Campaign donations are political speech and therefore should not be regulated (that's my opinion, and not the court's).
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They also granted cert to Knox v SEIU:
(1) May a State condition employment on the payment of a special union assessment intended solely for political and ideological expenditures without first providing a notice that includes information about that assessment and provides an opportunity to object to its exaction?
(2) May a State condition continued public employment on the payment of union agency fees for purposes of financing political expenditures for ballot measures?
And with U.S. v. Jones (warrantless GPS tracking) the court didn't grant cert yet, but wanted each side to write briefs on an additional constitutional question. So that case might be going before the court next session too.
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