Rou

But you did it anyway. Welcome to my 'Disgraceful Abuse of the Public Trust' List.

Down in Louisiana, the House just passed HB 1381. Basically, it makes the video game rating enforceable by law. If I store sells to underage, they get fined. If the game appeals ‘to the minor's morbid interest in violence’ or is determined to be ‘patently offensive to prevailing standards’, a judge may remove the game from stores entirely. Now, this type of thing has been smacked down as unconstitutional in 6 separate states now due to First Amendment issues. Hell, lemme give you the text of it:

A. An interactive video or computer game shall not be sold, leased, or rented to a minor if the trier of fact determines all of the following:

(1) The average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the video or computer game, taken as a whole, appeals to the minor's morbid interest in violence.
(2) The game depicts violence in a manner patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community with respect to what is suitable for minors.
(3) The game, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.

I’m not blasting them for the bill. I could, but I won’t. The fear mongering Jack Thompson and the Parents Television Council worked their art and scared the House into the vote. It was unanimous. 102-0. Not one member of the House dissented and no one avoided the vote. This is important.

Now, if they actually believed the law would help, I could forgive them to an extent. I’d rant at them for being stupid, but I’d at least understand.

Nope. What gets me is that many of the House members freely admit it will not survive a constitutional challenge. You know, while it’s the court’s responsibility to ensure laws are constitutionally acceptable, there is an onus on the lawmakers to craft laws to meet those same guidelines. And the Louisiana House members just failed their duties to their voters. It’s totally disgraceful.

It’s not even just the time and money they spent crafting the law, talking about it and voting for it. It’s the concept that they think it’s worth wasting the industry’s time and money fighting it. It wastes the court system’s time and money smacking it down. All of those costs get passed down to the citizens.

Admittedly, this is just the House bill. There is a separate bill in the LA Senate that is far more reasonable. The House bill can’t pass muster. The Senate bill has a chance, but it is unlikely.

Regardless, the people in Louisiana have been done injustice by their representatives. You’d think they’d have better things to do down there than try to pass illegal laws. Maybe they could look into rebuilding a levee or something..