American Civil Liberties Union
Published on American Civil Liberties Union (https://www.aclu.org)

Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association [1]

Updated:
Wednesday, September 15, 2010 - 12:00am
Status:
Decided

Related Issue Areas

Free Speech

Constitutional Principle

Free Speech

Summary

Whether a California law prohibiting the sale of "violent video games" to minors violates the First Amendment.

Description

California has enacted a law banning the sale of "violent video games" to minors. Like every other similar law around the nation, it was struck down as unconstitutional by a federal appeals court. In an amicus brief supporting that decision, the ACLU argues that the statute is pointless if it does not reach on-line sales and game playing, and overbroad if it does since the statutory prohibition would then effectively apply to adults as well as children. In addition, the ACLU brief argues that the statute's attempt to define "violent video games" by analogy to obscenity is vague, unenforceable, and unconstitutional.

© 2020 ACLU

Source URL: https://www.aclu.org/cases/brown-v-entertainment-merchants-association

Links
[1] https://www.aclu.org/cases/brown-v-entertainment-merchants-association