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Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Courts - Still more on "Justices Take Case on Video Game Law"

Updating earlier ILB entries, Tony Mauro and Carrie Levine report today in a very long story the National Law Journal:

Representatives of the video game industry, with $10 billion in annual sales nationwide, have been in contact with state AGs to persuade them to support the industry by filing a brief in the case, set for argument on Nov. 2. At issue: whether California's 2005 law banning sale or rental of violent video games to minors violated the First Amendment.

"It's our understanding that there's a pretty intense lobbying effort" against the law, said California Supervising Deputy Attorney General Zackery Morazzini, who will argue in defense of California's law before the high court in the case, titled Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association and Entertainment Software Association.

One sign that the industry is making inroads is that only 11 states signed onto an amicus curiae or friend-of-the-court brief supporting the California law filed on July 19, an unusually low number in a case involving a law aimed at protecting children. In a typical state-law enforcement case, 40 states or more may join briefs supporting their counterparts before the Supreme Court. The justices often cite state amicus briefs, so having states on the industry's side could be an important tactic in countering California's defense of the law.

Here is the SCOTUSblog WIKI page on the case, including the brief of 11 states (not including Indiana) supporting petitioners.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 1, 2010 11:22 AM
Posted to Courts in general