No one knows exactly when the United States Supreme Court will issue a ruling on Schwarzenegger vs. Entertainment Merchants Association, the first case on game censorship to reach the highest court in the U.S., but everyone is talking, and the talk is… Monday. A favorable ruling on this case will indicate – nationally – that punishing retailers for selling age-inappropriate games to minors is illegal. In English, a favorable ruling will mean that Best Buy is not expected to substitute for parents in the United States.
An unfavorable ruling will mean that states can punish retailers – with fines and prison time – for mistakenly selling Teen and Mature-rated games to minors. This would be in spite of the fact that no other entertainment medium, not movies, not TV, not books, not nothing, carry similar penalties. So keep your fingers crossed that our Justices of the Supreme Court have read the U.S. Constitution recently. Given some of their recent rulings (Women as a group can’t sue Wal-Mart for flagrant sex discrimination, fr’example), I have my worries. Keep your fingers, tentacles, and toes crossed.
This nonsense really, really needs to be defeated. Defeated, laughed at, and pissed on.
These people who expect corporations to parent their children… the nerve. Jackasses.
I agree. This is an important one. And I just can’t really predict what our current supreme court might do. They continue to surprise and often dismay me.
Kay
I agree with you Kay. They so often do dismay and disappoint, most recently with the Wal-Mart case that Steerpike mentions. And they answer to no one but themselves.
It’s interesting that the very politicians that want to punish game retailers (businesses) are the same ones who want to remove laws that restrict corporations (businesses) from doing as they please even when their actions are harmful to others. But then, no one ever said that conservatives are consistent. Except in their narrow-minded consistency.
Now now Spike, everyone knows that businesses are more important than people! Without businesses there would be no people.
I was particularly horrified by the “reason” they ruled against the plaintiffs in the Wal-Mart case. It boiled down to… there are too many women. Seriously. There are too many women! You women! With your numerous-ness! Why must you take up 50% of the population? Next you’ll be saying that the whole barefoot-and-pregnant-in-the-kitchen thing, which has served us well for many years, should not be a Thing!