LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
2010 Webby Award Winner for Best Political Blog
 
May 23, 2012
Log in / Register

 Choose a size
Text Size

Trending:     robert scheer     chris hedges     barack obama     gay marriage     ndaa
Most Read

God Is Watching

The Occupy Movement and the Politics of Educated Hope

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Ups the Ante in Birther Probe

Assange Versus the Tripe on American TV

Chicago Police Detain Independent Journalists at Gunpoint (Video)

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports
The Nearly $1 Trillion National Security Budget

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture
Better Than We Found It
The Good-Natured Dictator
A Beast Bent on Grace

Digs
Financial Meltdown 101

Truthdig Bazaar
The Virgin of Flames

The Virgin of Flames

By Chris Abani
$11.20

more items

 
Arts and Culture

Top Court Mulls Video Game Violence

Email this item Email    Print this item Print   

Posted on Nov 2, 2010
AP / Max Whittaker

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs a bill in 2005 restricting the sale and rental of violent video games to minors as Sacramento Girl Scouts look on.

The first day of deliberation in the Supreme Court about that perennial legal favorite, violence in video games, brought debate Tuesday about the potential damage done by minors’ exposure to sex versus violence ... and a Founding Fathers joke from Justice Samuel Alito.

Los Angeles Times:

The justices voted to hear California’s appeal, but they sounded split Tuesday.


Scalia insisted that since the nation’s founding, depictions of sex could be banned, but not depictions of violence and torture.


This drew a mocking rebuke from Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who is usually allied with Scalia on the conservative side.


When Scalia pressed the state’s lawyer to explain how the framers of the 1st Amendment would see the issue, Alito interjected: “What Justice Scalia wants to know is what James Madison thought about video games.” The remark elicited laughter in the courtroom.

Read more

More Below the Ad

Advertisement

Get truth delivered to
your inbox every week.

Previous item: Give Us This Day Our 'Daily Show'

Next item: What the Midterms Mean for Hollywood



Comments

Are you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.

By Gregory Goldmacher, November 3, 2010 at 1:25 pm Link to this comment

I am not a constitutional scholar, but to what extent does a video game qualify as “speech”? What are the characteristics that legally make something a speech act?

Report this

Add Your Comment

Posts by unregistered readers are moderated. Posts by members
are published immediately. Why wait? Register today!






                        Number of characters remaining: 4000

Are you a human? Retype the word you see here.

     

Please read and abide by our comment policy.
By submitting this comment, you agree to this site's terms and conditions.

Newsletter

Get Truthdig in your inbox


 
 
 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
Copyright © 2012 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.