Amicus Briefs Filed in California Violent Games SCOTUS Case

Today is the deadline to file "friend of the court" amicus briefs in the California violent games case going before the U.S. Supreme Court in early November. Some heavy hitters have shown up on both sides of the issue.

On the side of gamers, we have the Motion Picture Association of America, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and a host of publishers, artists and advertisers. More are expected to be filed before the end of business today, including a brief from the Entertainment Consumers Association.

The MPAA brief was joined by AFTRA, SAG, the Directors Guild of America and several other entertainment organizations, and stated in part:

“While parents have an undoubted interest in making informed judgments concerning the suitability of exposing their children to potentially objectionable content, [California has] failed to show that the government’s assistance is necessary to serve that interest,” the organizations’ brief continues. “And the fundamental lesson of the motion picture industry is that self-regulation can sufficiently enable parents to exercise their right to make informed judgments concerning movie content. The movie rating system has widely been praised for its effectiveness, and society’s long experience with the movie rating system demonstrates that a properly designed voluntary rating system can serve the relevant parental interest without the need for content-based government regulation.”

From the comic book contingent, via the Los Angeles Times:

In a brief filed Friday with the Supreme Court, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund urged the high court to reject the law, saying it "would undermine more First Amendment principles in a single case that any decision in living memory."

In short, the brief argues that video games are the canaries in the censorship mines. If the law is upheld, it could open the way for similar regulation of violent movies, music and other media, according to the brief.

Finally, from the brief from groups such as The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and the Recording Industry Association of America:

The First Amendment protection accorded to depictions and descriptions of violence accords with these basic facts:

Violence, both fictional and real, has always caused uneasiness in civilized audiences. Yet, violence has always been an essential part of our civilization's art and expression, just as violence has always been a part of the reality of human existence.

“Violence in the Media,” 52 Record of Ass’n of Bar of City of New York 275 (1997) (“Violence in Media”).

To be insulated from depictions and descriptions of violence, one would have to be insulated from the great works of religion, history, art, literature, and culture.

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