Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling is heard loud and clear: "Video games are speech"
June 3, 2003, St. Louis County: Major victory for the video game industry, game developers, as well as game players. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an earlier ruling (here). In the previous ruling, a judge ruled video games are not speech and are, therefore, not protected by the First Amendment, and can be regulated by the government. The court of appeals thought otherwise.
“Whether we believe the advent of violent video games adds anything to value of society is irrelevant. Guided by the First Amendment, we are obliged to recognize that ‘they are as much entitled to the protection of free speech as the best of literature,”’ Judge Morris S. Arnold wrote. The three judge panel also stated that since the ordinance threatened free speech, the county didn't show overwhelming evidence that video games cause harm to children to warrant a ban on games. Hmmm, it seems like these lawmakers that claim video games cause harm to children are fabricating the truth a little, since they always make the claim that video games cause harm to children, yet they don't ever seem to supply that overwhelming evidence in court.
Douglas Lowenstein,
president of the Interactive Digital Software Association, called it “a total
and unambiguous affirmation of our position that video games have the same
constitutional status as a painting, a film, or a book.”
Latest news: St. Louis County files to re-hear the case.
They want the entire court of appeals to re-hear the case. Chances of this
happening are slim to none, so it looks like the case will soon be closed.
The video game industry (the plaintiffs) have asked to be reimbursed in the
amount of $170,882.40 for lawyer fees. As you
may recall, the same scenario happened in the Indianapolis case where the city
of Indianapolis had to pay the arcade industry for its lawyer fees (not to
mention, the city's own lawyer fees that they, too, had to pay for).
Hopefully, lawmakers will think twice before trying to regulate video games and have to use tax dollars defending an unconstitutional law that will end up losing in the end anyway.