Law Commons^™

California's Interest In Schwarzenegger V. Entertainment Merchants Association, Deana Ann Pollard Sacks

Deana A Pollard

The issue pending before the Supreme Court in Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association is whether a California law prohibiting the sale of the most violent “morbid or deviant” video games to minors violates the minors’ First Amendment right to receive the video game “speech.” The manner in which the Ninth Circuit has framed this issue, however, fails to identify fully all of the minors’ First Amendment interests at risk on both sides of the controversy. The most recent and credible scientific evidence concerning the risks that violent video games pose to the mental health of minors has constitutional implications that …