Supreme Court to Hear Videogame Law Arguments Tomorrow

Tomorrow, November 2nd 2010, lawyers for both sides of the case will begin an oral argument process for the California videogame law. While not the final decision by the Court, it’s basically where each side gets to argue its case and give the judges the grounding to make their decision.

The law, brought forward by California, sees to restrict the sale of videogames considered too violent for children in the state. While it doesn’t sound like a bad thing, it will essentially mean that videogames aren’t protected from freedom of expression in the same way movies and books are.

In reaction to this, the Los Angeles Times has penned an editorial highlighting the key points of the court’s decision and the main questions it thinks it will be centred around:

Do video games qualify as “speech” protected by the 1st Amendment? Should the court treat video violence the same way it would treat obscenity? Finally, has California proved that this constitutes a real problem and, if so, that the ban on video sales to minors is the only solution?

The article notes that while the law stems from good intentions, it will ultimately “jeopardize free speech in settings far removed from a video store or a teenager’s bedroom.” The New York Times also published a similar article back in May.

Elsewhere, Gamasutra has spoken to a legal expert who says he would be surprised if the Supreme Court backed California’s bill. “The consensus expectation is that this case will fit with the other state cases on this issue (and the two lower court decisions in California). The preliminary injunction will likely be upheld and the statute will likely be held unconstitutional,” said attorney S. Gregory Boyd.

Kotaku also has a useful post which bullet-points the arguments and questions you might have, outlining the basic elements of the proposed law and potential effects. You can also check Nukezilla‘s previous coverage (there’s a fair bit of it).

As previously mentioned, tomorrow won’t be the final decision (they have until June to decide) but it’ll be a step closer and for American gamers it’s a pretty important issue.

Update: If you were looking for further justification for opposing the law, how’s conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh for you? Answering a question from a 21 year-old caller (found by Kotaku), he said:

If it’s taken a video game to get you interested and have the light go off, to have you see what liberalism is all about, I’m glad to have you on our side, ’cause I agree with you. Leave your game alone. The people that put together these video games are artists in their own right. If you’re gonna start saying that video games are raunchy, then how the hell do you leave cable television alone?”