COURT BATTLE MAY NOT BE OVER FOR IDSA IN ST. LOUIS
Long battle between Interactive Digital Software Assn. (IDSA) and St. Louis County may not be over after all. Earlier this month, 8th U.S. Appeals Court, St. Louis, on constitutional grounds struck down St. Louis ordinance that had sought to ban sale of violent videogames to minors (CED June 5 p3). But IDSA said Thurs. that St. Louis County officials had submitted motion for reconsideration of ruling.
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Despite latest move by county, IDSA Pres. Douglas Lowenstein expressed confidence Thurs. that court battle was over: “We feel confident that the decision issued by the 8th [U.S. Appeals Court] on June 3 will stand. The opinion was clear, decisive and based on well-established First Amendment principles, and we do not believe there is a basis for a rehearing.”
Judge Morris Arnold wrote in decision of 3-judge 8th Circuit panel that “there is no justification for disqualifying videogames as speech simply because they are construed to be interactive” as had been argued by proponents of St. Louis law. He said books -- “such as the preteen-oriented Choose Your Own Nightmare series… can be every bit as interactive as videogames.” He said that in those books, reader “makes choices that determine the plot of the story.” Arnold also held that videogames -- regardless of their content -- were constitutionally protected speech, writing: “If the First Amendment is versatile enough to ’shield [the] painting of Jackson Pollack, music of Arnold Schoenberg or Jabberwocky verse of Lewis Carroll’ [cited in a prior decision], we see no reason why the pictures, graphic design, concept art, sounds, music, stories and narrative present in videogames are not entitled to similar protection.” Judges also held that St. Louis County had failed to establish that there was compelling state interest in regulating sale of games to minors on behalf of parents. Decision also dismissed county’s claim that violent videogames had to be regulated because they had been proven to be harmful to minors.
IDSA said after June 3 ruling it hoped Appeals Court decision would help put brakes on future laws. Lowenstein said: “We hope that this ruling, coupled with a similar ruling by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals [Chicago] in a case involving an Indianapolis law seeking to restrict the display of violent video arcade games, will give pause to those who would use the power of the state to regulate speech they find objectionable.”
County ordinance overturned by Appeals Court originally was passed in 2000. After IDSA’s motion for summary judgment was denied by U.S. Dist. Court, St. Louis, videogame industry trade group and joint plaintiffs including VSDA and Missouri Retailers Assn. filed appeal in 8th Circuit. Latter court reversed earlier decision and directed Dist. Court to enter injunction preventing ordinance from going into effect.
Meanwhile, videogame industry’s U.S. trade group continued its legal battles on other fronts. For example, IDSA earlier this month joined VSDA, Hollywood Entertainment and other to challenge constitutionality of recently passed Wash. violent videogame law (CED June 9 p3). Law, signed last month by Wash. Gov. Gary Locke (D), makes it illegal to rent or sell videogames containing violence directed at law enforcement officers to kids under 17.