Louisiana Attorney General to Jack Thompson: Put Up or Shut Up

September 2, 2006

The strange, contentious situation surrounding the legal defense of Louisiana's video game law has gotten even stranger and more contentious.

Yesterday, Miami attorney Jack Thompson (left) forwarded to GamePolitics a pair of e-mails. The first was from Deputy Louisiana Attorney General Burton Guidry to Thompson, sent late Wednesday afternoon:

"Ok Mr. Thompson, put up or shut up. I need affidavits and other documentation to defeat a motion for summary judgment. If you really want to help just get me the affidavits and some scientific data that can defeat this motion as soon as possible. Time is of the essence since [the game industry's motion] has been filed today. I need the information by Monday in my hands for filing. Can you and will you?"

Guidry is referring to the video game industry's motion for summary judgment, filed with Federal Judge James Brady's court earlier that day.

Thompson's reply, which the controversial attorney also forwarded to GP, is addressed to Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and cc'd to Guidry and other officials of the Attorney General's Office:

"I and my experts, all of whom have testified before Congress on the demonstrably harmful effects of video games on teens, are happy to help the State of Louisiana defeat the fraudulent attack upon the above by the video game industry in federal court.""However, that help is dependent upon your office's and Attorney General Foti's commitment, as I have been saying for weeks now, to do everything that is necessary and proper to win."

"As it stands now, your office has ignored all of my warnings and requests in this regard... Your own office's Terry Ryder [Gov. Blanco's Executive Counsel] has been missing in action on all of this.""Governor Blanco, get involved at least to the above extent, or kiss this law good-bye... Burton Guidry has childishly told me (his words) to 'put up or shut up.'"

"The taunt applies to Attorney General Foti, not me."

No word yet from Thompson on GP's request to clarify exactly what he wants the Guv or the Attorney General to do. If the anti-game activist is forthcoming with that info we'll update the story.

Posted in Games & Culture

Comments

Submitted by Thompson: Attorney Generals are pansies » That Game Bl (not verified) on Fri, 01/19/2007 - 21:47.

[...] Hey, good idea! Now if only the ESRB would launch a nation wide campeign to educate parents on the ratings system… Anyway, Jack isn’t too happy about it. Its not like the AG forced Wyatt to yank the bill, or that this move is designed to save it so it can be presented at a later date, but I guess that just isn’t enough. Following in the footsteos of the current bad blood with the Louisiana Attorney General (that link is definanelt worth following, bu the way), Thompson has issued this statement presenting his thoughts on Utah’s Attorney General: As you know AG Shurtleff is a video game enthusiast and apologist for the industry… He won’t take my calls, so he has intentionally isolated himself from the scientific, medical, and law enforcement evidence that violence games played by teens spawns violence… the US Supreme Court disagrees with him on this issue, but I guess we can’t expect an Attorney General of a state to care what the U.S. Supreme Court has to say. [...]

Shout box

Andrew Eisen: That article is over five years old, Uncharted. A fun blast from the past though.02/12/2012 - 10:47pm

Uncharted NES: Critics: 'Left Behind' game glorifies violence- http://tinyurl.com/wu64s02/12/2012 - 4:34pm

Zen: I felt Brutal Legends was a funny & beautiful look at the world of rock from Double Fines point of view. The only parts I wasn't hot for were the RTS bits as it felt forced. Otherwise fantastic.02/12/2012 - 1:34pm

DorthLous: Passed 1.5M$. And I'd also say that Brutal Legend is far from being a bad game. I just think it was a few levels under what people expected from the people working on the project.02/11/2012 - 8:25am

Technogeek: Brutal Legend wasn't bad so much as "marketing had no idea how the game actually played", causing it to suffer accordingly.02/10/2012 - 10:38pm

RedMage: It looks the CIA's website has been DDOS'ed. Anon?02/10/2012 - 7:52pm

RedMage: Brutal Legend.02/10/2012 - 7:52pm

ddrfr33k: Has anything Tim Schafer ever made been of crap caliber? I'm struggling to think of one...02/10/2012 - 7:37pm

Guamish: I think it is in good hands. Tim did a game for the GDC award show and that was fun for how short it was.02/10/2012 - 12:22pm

Andrew Eisen: It'll be tragic if the game ultimately sucks.02/10/2012 - 12:17pm

james_fudge: $1.3 million02/10/2012 - 11:32am

Uncharted NES: Germany Says It Won't Sign ACTA [Update: ... Yet]- http://tinyurl.com/7r2twrg02/10/2012 - 11:21am

Andrew Eisen: Damn. Double Fine's Kickstarter fund has already passed a million dollars.02/09/2012 - 8:16pm

Andrew Eisen: Audrey didn't quote the sassy parts. Here's IGN's article: http://wii.ign.com/articles/121/1218359p1.html And here's my original post: http://tinyurl.com/7y68a3902/09/2012 - 7:50pm

james_fudge: I hope you some said something sassy! Where's the link?02/09/2012 - 7:46pm

Andrew Eisen: Hey, neat. IGN quoted a blog I had writen only two hours earlier. I certainly timed that one pretty well.02/09/2012 - 7:38pm

Andrew Eisen: Toki Tori has been added to the Humble Bundle for Android.02/09/2012 - 5:11pm

james_fudge: Thanks for the heads-up DorthLous02/09/2012 - 4:33pm

DorthLous: Will do, my apologies.02/09/2012 - 4:14pm

Andrew Eisen: I appreciate the heads up but please keep typo alerts to the specific article's comments or PMs.02/09/2012 - 3:33pm

All shouts

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