"No doubt a state possesses legitimate power to protect children from harm," said Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the majority opinion. "But that does not include a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed."
The Supreme Court overruled California's ban on the sale gratuitously violent video games to minors, so now teens will continue to be able to buy video games, regardless of parental approval. The 7-2 ruling in favor of free-speech protections comes under fire because many fear the decision enables to spread of aggressive and violent behaviors in minors.
Although most minors play video games without reproducing similar acts of violence, evidence suggests the possibility and risk for both the desensitization to and reproduction of extreme violence. Consider cases such as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the Columbine shooters. According to CNN
Jerald Block, a researcher and psychiatrist in Portland, has concluded that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on their shooting rampage at Columbine High School after their parents took away their video game privileges.As members of the Trenchcoat Mafia, a gang of misfit gamers, Harris and Klebold had significant exposure to violent video games, such as Doom, a shooter video game developed by id Software. With cases such as Columbine in mind, Justice Alito wrote
"We should not jump to the conclusion that new technology is fundamentally the same as some older [form of speech] with which we are familiar."
The court ultimately sent a loud and clear message that protection of the First Amendment takes priority over protecting against social diseases, such as violence. By striking down the 2005 California law, the high court upheld the constitutional values and rights the justices have sworn to protect. They did right by their professional oaths. However, the decision calls into question whether or not the government should regulate against forces that spread social diseases, whether they be violence, sexism, or racism, and what stipulations will make regulation constitutional.
