| Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Argued November 2, 2010 Decided June 27, 2011 | |
| Full case name | Edmund G. Brown, Governor of the State of California, and Kamala Harris, Attorney General of the State of California v. Entertainment Merchants Association and Entertainment Software Association |
| Docket no. | 08-1448 |
| Citations | 564 U.S. 786 (more) 131 S. Ct. 2729; 180 L. Ed. 2d 708 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | Preliminary injunction granted to plaintiffs, sub nom. Video Software Dealers Assn. v. Schwarzenegger, 401 F. Supp. 2d 1034 (N.D. Cal. 2005); summary judgment granted to plaintiffs, No. C-05-04188, 2007 WL 2261546 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 6, 2007); aff'd, 556 F.3d 950 (9th Cir. 2009); cert. granted, 559 U.S. 1092 (2010). |
| Holding | |
| Bans on the sale of violent video games to children without parental supervision violate the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Scalia, joined by Kennedy, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Kagan |
| Concurrence | Alito (in judgment), joined by Roberts |
| Dissent | Thomas |
| Dissent | Breyer |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. I; Cal. Civ. Code §§ 1746–1746.5 (2009) | |
Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, 564 U.S. 786 (2011), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court that struck down a 2005 California law banning the sale of certain violent video games to children without parental supervision. In a 7–2 decision, the Court affirmed the lower court decisions and nullified the law, ruling that video games were protected speech under the First Amendment as other forms of media.
The ruling was seen as a significant victory for the video game industry. Several of the Court's justices suggested that the issue might need to be re-examined in the future, considering the changing nature of video games and their continuously improving technology.