Professor Brownstein Comments on Violent Video Game Law for Sacramento Bee

Professor Alan Brownstein commented for the Sacramento Bee on California's unsuccessful legal defense of a law that sought to restrict the ability of minors to purchase violent video games. The law was passed in 2005 but blocked by a district court, prompting the State to undertake a legal battle that culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association in 2011, which held that video games were protected speech.

Professor Brownstein commented that the State might have had a stronger case if the law had applied to children 13 years old and under rather than to all minors.  "When it's 18, you're basically saying that a 17 1/2-year-old who is going to join the Marines in six months has to bring his mom along when he buys a violent video game," Brownstein said.

Professor Brownstein, a nationally recognized Constitutional Law scholar, teaches Constitutional Law, Law and Religion, and Torts at UC Davis School of Law, where he holds the Boochever and Bird Endowed Chair for the Study and Teaching of Freedom and Equality.

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