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Supreme Court Video Game Case Likely Decided This Week
This may be the biggest week in video game news, but it's also likely to have the biggest legal decision about video games in U.S. history.
As if the video game world didn't have enough to discuss this week, there is a high likelihood that the long-awaited Supreme Court decision regarding Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (previously Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchant's Association) will come down from the Supreme Court of the United States in the next few days. For those who don't recall, the case deals with a number of issues, most notably whether a state law restricting the sale of certain games to minors is a violation of free speech. The case is important not only because of its potential effect in California, where the law was authored, but also because of the likelihood that other states could follow suit with similar laws.
You can read the full transcript of the oral arguments in the case from last fall, linked from this article.
SCOTUSblog, a website that tracks the proceedings and decisions of the Supreme Court, rightly points out that the Court has still not decided on only two cases from the November sitting, one of which is Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association. Furthermore, opinions are predicted for Monday (tomorrow) and Thursday.
While we're no legal experts, we have a feeling that the people who run a detailed blog about the Supreme Court probably are. If they say we'll likely see decisions sometime soon, it's a good bet they're right. And there are a dwindling number of cases that were heard so long ago to pick between.
If a final answer from the Court does come this week, at least the video game industry will all be together in one place to either celebrate or decry whatever decision is passed down.
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