Edmund G. Brown, JR., Governor of California, et al., Petitioners v. Entertainment Merchants Association, et al. (564 U.S. 786)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 27, 2011 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 564 U.S. 786 · 131 S. Ct. 2729
- Decided
- June 27, 2011
- Term
- October Term 2010
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Scalia
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
- Constitutional ruling
- State/territorial law held unconstitutional
Opinion excerpt
Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court. We consider whether a California law imposing restrictions on violent video games comports with the First Amendment. California Assembly Bill 1179 (2005), Cal. Civ. Code Ann. §§ 1746-1746.5 (West 2009) (Act), prohibits the sale or rental of “violent video games” to minors, and requires their packaging to be labeled “18.” The Act covers games “in which the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being, if those acts are depicted” in a manner that “[a] reasonable person, considering the game as a whole, would find appeals to a deviant or morbid interest of minors,” that is “patently offensive to prevailing standards in the community as to what is suitable for minors,” and that “causes the game, as a whole, to lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.” § 1746(d)(1)(A). Violation of the Act is punishable by a civil fine of up to $1,000. §1746.3. Respondents, representing the video-game and software industries, brought a preenforcement challenge to the Act in the United States District Court for the Northern District H-1 of California. That court concluded that the Act violated the First Amendment and permanently enjoined its enforcement. Video Software Dealers Assn. v. Schwarzenegger, No. C-05-04188 RMW (2007),…
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