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U.S. District Court Rules Regulation of Video Games Unconstitutional
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) hailed last week's decision by Judge Robert Lasnik of the U.S. District Court in Seattle granting summary judgment to overturn Washington state legislation which sought to ban the sale of certain video games to minors. Judge Lasnik's ruling on 15 July 2004 determined that the Washington state statute was clearly unconstitutional. "This is a sweeping victory. Today's decision once again affirms that video games are protected speech, and efforts by states to ban the sale of games they find objectionable will inevitably run afoul of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution," said Douglas Lowenstein, president of the ESA, the trade association representing U.S. computer and video game publishers. "While we share the state's goal of making sure children don't have access to inappropriate games, the answer isn't to undermine the Constitution."
In his ruling, Judge Lasnik rejected the state's argument that video games should be regulated under obscenity law, and declined the state's invitation to expand the narrowly defined obscenity exception to include portrayals of violence. "[S]uch depictions [of violence] have been used in literature, art, and the media to convey important messages throughout our history, and there is no indication that such expressions have ever been excluded from the protections of the First Amendment or subject to government regulation," wrote Judge Lasnik. Dismissing the claims of the state's expert witnesses and the studies they presented, Judge Lasnik determined that, "neither causation nor an increase in real-life aggression is proven by these studies." "[T]he Court finds that the Legislature's belief that video games cause violence, particularly violence against law enforcement officers, is not based on reasonable inferences drawn from substantial evidence," he said.
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