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Video-Game Laws In Three States Are Ruled Unconstitutional

By Stan Soocher
January 03, 2006

The trend in judicial resistance to statutes that regulate video-game content recently became clearer when federal district courts in Michigan, Illinois and California enjoined state statutes that deemed certain video-game content harmful to minors.

First, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division, preliminarily enjoined Part II of Michigan 2005 Public Act 108, which made it a civilly fineable offense of from $5,000 to $40,000, based on the number of violations, to “knowingly disseminate to a minor an ultra-violent explicit video game that is harmful to minors.” The Act also included criminal fines and jail time for store managers who allowed minors to “play or view the playing” of such games.

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