Court nixes rule on video games

ST. LOUIS -- A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a St. Louis County law limiting children's access to violent video games was unconstitutional.

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis overturned a ruling issued last year that supported the ordinance.

The ordinance, passed by the St. Louis County Council in 2000, would require children under 17 to have parental consent before they can buy violent or sexually explicit video games or play similar arcade games.

The ordinance was never implemented pending the outcome of the lawsuit.

In April 2002, U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh rejected a request by a video game industry group to invalidate the ordinance.

But the appeals court ruled there was no justification for disqualifying video games from the right to free speech simply because they are considered interactive.

"Whether we believe the advent of violent video games adds anything to value of society is irrelevant; guided by the first amendment, we are obliged to recognize that 'they are as much entitled to the protection of free speech as the best of literature,'" Judge Morris S. Arnold wrote.

Arnold noted that obscenity is one of the few categories of speech historically unprotected by the first amendment.

"Simply put, depictions of violence cannot fall within the legal definition of obscenity for either minors or adults," he wrote.

"We're disappointed," St. Louis County Counselor Patricia Redington said. "We thought Judge Limbaugh hit the nail on the head."

She didn't know whether the county would appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

David Overfelt, president of the Missouri Retailers Association, applauded the decision. He said his industry group joined the lawsuit because it believed the ordinance would have forced retail clerks to make judgment calls on selling and renting to children.

A spokeswoman for the plaintiff in the lawsuit, the Washington-based Interactive Digital Software Association, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

In his 2002 ruling, Limbaugh said the county had compelling interests to protect the physical and emotional health of its children and assist parents as guardians of their children's well-being.

St. Louis County modeled its ordinance after one in Indianapolis, that was invalidated by a federal appeals court in Chicago.