14 DAY TRIAL // The video game law that Califonia passed and which was the object of a lawsuit that reached the United States Supreme Court has been one of the most difficult cases of the term that has just ended, according to one of the judges that ruled on it.
Elena Kagan spoke at the McCloskey Speaker Series at the Aspen Institute after the Supreme Court term was over and said about the video game law that, “It was the case where I struggled most and thought most often I’m on the wrong side of it. You could see why the government would have wanted to do this and you can see the kind of danger it was worried about, the kind of effects these extremely violent video games have on young people.”
She added, “But I couldn’t figure out how to square that with our First Amendment precedence and precedence is very important to me. I sweated over that mightily.”
Kagan has been nominated by President Obama and is seen as a liberal voice on the court and this has her first year on the bench.
The California video game law was struck down by a 7 to 2 majority on the grounds that it aimed to differentiate video games as a medium from other forms of speech that are protected.
Kagan says that the entire court aims to protect free speech as much as possible but it is possible that a more carefully worded bill aimed at limiting the availability of video games might make it past the Supreme Court scrutiny and become law.
The California state senator who created the struck down bill has said that he plans to use the dissenting opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas as a basis to create new legislation, although it is not clear when it might be introduced.