ESA Files Suit Against Minnesota

Good for them.

“Legislators in the state of Minnesota have enacted a video game restriction law that they apparently do not want enforced and understand cannot constitutionally be enforced,” noted Bo Andersen, President of the Entertainment Merchants Association. “Unfortunately, as a result of the legislature threatening to impose penalties on the children of Minnesota, it will be the taxpayers of the state who pay the penalty when this law is overturned, as it must be.”

The law in question would take the unprecedented step of fining minors $25 for purchasing games rated Mature or Adults Only, to which the Entertainment Software Association takes serious issue:

“The bill’s tortured effort to end run the First Amendment by punishing kids directly fails under the Constitution because children have rights under the First Amendment, like all other citizens,” commented ESA president Doug Lowenstein. “The State is attempting to impose liability on children because they know that courts have consistently held that they cannot penalize retailers. We believe that the courts will agree that fining children violates the First Amendment as well.”

What is there left to say? The bill will be struck down easily, and the ESA will have to move on to shutting down the next opportunistic attempt.