I forget who the Patron Saint of Lost Causes is, but in the world of video games you could very easily split that title amongst State Senator Leland Yee, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Attorney General Jerry Brown. In 2005 Senator Yee sponsored and Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law legislation that was intended to "protect" kids (WON'T ANYONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!?) from the evils of Violent Video Games (BOO!).
In terms of law the 2005 California Law was just plain bad and the courts recognized it as such, striking it down in 2007 and striking it down again in 2009. And in 2008 the State of California had to fork over nearly $300,000 to the ESA to pay the video game industry's legal fees.
You'd think that would've been the end of it. A bad law, written in haste to pander to your base of Helicopter Parents, struck down by the courts. Give up and move on to, I dunno, something more productive, like, I dunno, un-Bankrupting the State of California. But oh no!
From the California Chronicle:
The State of California today petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States for a review (writ of certiorari) regarding a decision by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which in February struck down a state law preventing the sale and rental of ultra-violent video games to children.
Because the Third Time is always the charm!
Er, or Not. According to the Christian Science Monitor:
For a variety of reasons, I don't think they'll take it," says Dave Kohler, director of the Southwestern Law School Donald Biederman Entertainment and Media Law Institute. "The most significant one is the fact that if you apply this standard to video games, then you have to apply it to television, movies, and pay cable shows as well."
While the top justices have weighed in on issues pertaining to the regulation of pornography, he says, regulating violence in a fictional setting is another and much larger issue.
"You're talking about the central topic of many of the great works of literature throughout history," Mr. Kohler adds.
So California is wasting time, and more importantly, money, appealing the constitutionality of a bad law, why exactly? Well, it's nice to know California Democrats and Republicans can find common ground over a non-issue.
Enough already. Let it die. Leave the responsibility of what kids play and watch and do in the hands of the Parents where they belong. Stop wasting taxpayer money on this nonsense. In non-crisis years it is annoying and craven grandstanding, in crisis years where the entire State is asking for a Federal Bailout it is infuriating.