California Appeals Overturned Video-Game Ban To The Supreme Court
from the if-at-first-you-don't-succeed dept
Politicians in California keep trying to push through a ban on the sale of violent video games to minors -- despite the fact that every state that's passed a ban has seen it get tossed out by the courts. The latest setback for California came in February, when an appeals court upheld a lower court's ruling that the ban was unconstitutional, but the state's not finished. Its attorney general, Jerry Brown, now says he's asked the Supreme Court to hear another appeal of the original ruling. It's fairly annoying that Brown sees fit to waste even more taxpayer money (especially given the state's budget woes), but perhaps the only saving grace is that the Supreme Court might take the case and reaffirm what other courts have said all along, and finally put a stop to some of this political grandstanding.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: appeals, california, first amendment, video games
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
not likely
[ link to this | view in thread ]
What do the politicians think they will accomplish? I got my first M-Rated game when I was 12 years old... there is no point to the law if parents don't care/know and buy the games for their kiddies anyway. A law that accomplishes nothing isn't really a law, just a bad toothache.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
but that is their bread and butter
politicians think they need talking points and pats on the back for new things rather than making the existing things actualy work.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Only in does this BS happen.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Unless there is something else that I'm missing?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Your statement is flawed, in that if a parent purchase a game for the kid, and that kid is caught in possession of such game, now the parent also gets a fine or locked away. This is what the politicians want.
Video games are not fire-arms or alcohol but some politicians would like to put them all in the same category.
Game rating of T, M or AO is not a law, it is a rating system created by the non-profit company, ESRB.
http://www.esrb.org/ratings/faq.jsp
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
It is? Is there any citation for this, because that isn't what the article is about. If there's a slippery slope here that you can back up w/some evidence, lord know I'm on board, but based on the article I don't really see the problem.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
It is not, however, appropriate as a law, as has been proven in the courts time and time again. These politicians are overstepping the bounds of the Constitution trying to make a theoretically fine policy into law, and wasting taxpayer money doing so.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
! person...
[ link to this | view in thread ]