Supreme Court decision on video games, video game violence, Brown vs. Entertainment Merchants Association, California Assembly Bill 1179, violent video games, violent video game ban, Leland Yee, First Amendment rights, arcade video game, coin-op video game, Michael D. Gallagher
SACRAMENTO, CA -- California will pay $950,000 to the Electronic Software Association to cover the trade group's legal bills in a landmark videogame case.
On June 27, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association and Entertainment Software Association that videogames deserve First Amendment protection. | SEE STORY
The landmark verdict decisively overturned a 2005 California law that sought to ban youths' access to videogames on the basis of so-called "violent" content. | SEE RULING
California had already paid the ESA to cover its legal fees in two California lower court rulings that abrogated the same law.
With the latest and final reimbursement, the total that California has paid to the ESA is $1.3 million. The ESA has received another $1.8 million from other states that suffered comparable reversals on similar laws from various appeals courts.
ESA president Michael D. Gallagher said the organization would invest some of the money from California in after-school educational programs for disadvantaged youths in Oakland and Sacramento.
