Though news about the law has been quiet for awhile, the law to ban the sale of violent video games to minors was still kicking around slightly in the American justice system. Though the law had already been ruled against in the lower courts, the Supreme Court itself has issued it’s ruling about the case. Brown v. The Entertainment Merchants Association has once again been ruled against, with the majority opinion of seven out of the nine supreme court Justices to rule against the law.
Their official statement for the majority opinion is below:
Like the protected books, plays, and movies that preceded them, video games communicate ideas-and even social messages-through many familiar literary devices (such as characters, dialogue, plot, and music) and through features distinctive to the medium (such as the player’s interaction with the virtual world). That suffices to confer First Amendment protection. Under our Constitution, “esthetic and moral judgments about art and literature . . . are for the individual to make, not for the Government to decree, even with the mandate or approval of a majority.”
This decision is a major step for both game developers and gamers alike as now that the Supreme Court has made this ruling it sets a precedent for all other cases against video games in the future. As to how well this ruling will hold together in the years to come, one can only guess, but it is certainly good news for those wishing to have video games recognized as legitimate forms of entertainment that deserve the same rights as all other forms of entertainement as mentioned above.
