Portal:Freedom of speech/Selected article/28

Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (formerly titled as Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association) is a United States Supreme Court case that struck down a California law enacted in 2005 that was intended to ban the sale of certain violent video games to children without parental supervision. In a 7–2 decision, the Court upheld the lower court decisions and revoked the law, ruling that video games were protected speech under the First Amendment as other forms of media. The Court left open the possibility that a more narrowly tailored law regulating the sale of video games to minors could survive constitutional scrutiny. The ruling was seen as a significant victory for the video game industry and a defeat for parental rights groups. Several of the Court's justices suggested that the issue may need to be re-examined in the future, considering the changing nature of video games and their continuously improving technology. Some video game analysts have seen this as a wake-up call for the industry to mature in light of the Court's opinions.