ESA Planning Next Legal Step after La. Court Win on Violent Games
The Entertainment Software Assn. (ESA) late last week lauded a decision by U.S. Dist. Court Judge James Brady, Baton Rouge, granting the game industry a preliminary injunction to stop La. from imposing a new law that would ban rental or sale of excessively violent games to minors. An ESA spokeswoman said the group plans to file for summary judgment and class certification “in short order,” adding “we are not sure when the judge will hand down his final decision.”
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The ESA views Brady’s decision to issue a preliminary injunction as an “inevitable outcome,” and reflects his conclusion that the game industry will ultimately come out victorious in its suit against the state, it said. “We are pleased that Judge Brady has issued this preliminary injunction,” ESA Pres. Douglas Lowenstein said, again knocking La. for passing the law. “Given the well-documented problems facing the state of Louisiana, resources could be spent in a more productive way to improve the health and welfare of its citizens,” he said: “In the post-Katrina era, voters should be outraged that the Legislature and Governor wasted their tax dollars on this ill-fated attack on videogames.” But “despite all this, we stand ready to work with any and all elected officials in Louisiana, as we have in other states, to implement programs that truly help parents understand more about the videogames their kids play and how to choose them wisely,” Lowenstein said.
“Videogames re as much entitled to the protection of free speech as the best of literature” and La. ignored a line of cases holding that videogames enjoy First Amendment rights, Brady said: “It appears that much of the same evidence has been considered by numerous courts and in each case the connection was found to be tenuous and speculative.” Brady found that “alternatives” to the law which would achieve the state goal of protecting minors “exist, including encouraging awareness of the voluntary ESRB videogame rating system… and the availability of parent controls that allow each household to determine which games their children can play.”
In another game industry plus, Brady said the “plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.” He added “the loss of constitutionally protected freedoms in and of itself constitutes irreparable harm.” In June, the court issued a temporary restraining order against the law’s imposition.
Among those named in the suit was La. Attorney Gen. Charles Foti (D). He didn’t comment by our deadline.