from SLATE: >> The Supreme Court on Monday struck down a California law that regulates the >> sale or rental of violent video games to children. In a 7-2 decision, the >> court found that governments don’t have the power to “restrict the ideas to >> which children may be exposed.” The ruling upheld an earlier federal appeals >> court decision that the state’s ban violated minors’ rights under the First >> Amendment.
Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said that the California law was “unprecedented and mistaken” and argued that there is a difference between protecting children from depictions of sex, and placing restrictions on depictions of violence. “Certainly the books we give children to read – or read to them when they are younger – contain no shortage of gore,” Scalia wrote, citing Grimm Fairy Tales like Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella and Snow White. The California law in question would have blocked the sale or rental of violent games to anyone under 18 years of age. As the Associated Press notes, retailers who violated the ban would have been subject to a $1,000 fine for each infraction....<< I don't know much about the law, but does this mean that students in High School have free speech rights? they can publish newspapers with opinions that the principal doesn't like? they can wear T-shirts with politically-unpopular slogans? will they be protected by the 4th amendment next, protected against unreasonable searches and seizures (e.g., drug tests), with the requirement that any warrant be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause? -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
