Video game censorship law struck down!

I've written much about federal courts striking down state laws. But if the state law is unconstitutional, it deserves to be struck down.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals usually leans to the right (conservative complaints to the contrary notwithstanding). In recent years, the court has usually been squarely on the side of more laws against individual conduct and fewer laws against the conduct of Big Business.

But even a broken clock is right twice a day, and the Ninth Circuit has finally generated a proper constitutional ruling - this time upholding the free exchange of ideas and individual rights.

The court quite accurately ruled on Friday that a California law to censor "violent" video games is unconstitutional. Of course the law was unconstitutional. Anyone with even a basic grasp of the First Amendment could see that.

California's law, which passed in 2005, restricted sales and rentals of games and imposed rigid labeling requirements.

All this after the censors spent the '90s harping about how video game ratings were only voluntary.

Some of you are going to ask whether the law that was struck down actually restricted the rights of corporations that sell the games rather than the rights of individuals. Actually, the law violated individual rights more. Free flow of media materials incorporates individuals' right to view what they want.

I also know that some whiny crybabies are going to say the Constitution should be ignored altogether, just because of their own desire to ban games. Fuck them.

(Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2044580420090220)