State Put Forth No Defense of Failed Louisiana Video Game Law

State Put Forth No Defense of Failed Louisiana Video Game Law

December 8, 2006
As you probably know, Louisiana's video game law - the one written by controversial Miami attorney Jack Thompson (left) - was ruled unconstitutional by a federal district court judge last week.

Judge James Brady, who issued a temporary injunction in August which blocked the law from taking effect, granted the video game industry's motion for summary judgment on November 29th. Brady's ruling was the final nail in the controversial bill's coffin.

In the wake of the Louisiana decision, GamePolitics has learned that the state essentially offered no defense of its own law. Deputy Attorney General Burton Guidry, assigned to argue Louisiana's case, did not even file a motion in opposition to the video game industry's request for summary judgment.

Nor did Guidry make any "substantive arguments" at last Wednesday's hearing in Baton Rouge, according to a reliable source.

Indeed, after the hearing Guidry told local newspaper The Advocate:
We did everything we could to defend the law, but, as the judge said, the law was practically unenforceable as written…

Based on the way the Louisiana Attorney General's Office seemed to distance itself from the ill-fated video game law, no appeal is expected.

Comments

Gotta love the first ammendment :). Looking at this, what does it tell us about the people who supported the bill in the first place.

On a side track, where was the photo taken?
You know, I seem to remember hearing words like ironclad, flawless, and insurmountable when used to describe this bill. Were these words perhaps referring not to the bill itself but the offensive the games industry would raise against it?
I seem to think that the people trying to pass these laws are brain-dead because apprently they don't even know the ammendments that they are suppost to inforce. these ammendments give us the right to express ourselves and this seperates us from places like Russia who rather get rid of games altogether. well no skin of my bones. they are just getting rid of another source of income.
Was JT the driving force behind this law? If so, I wonder if the state may try to (symbolically at least) foot the bill when the ESA sues for legal fees.

BTW, what about that "deadline" JT announced for the ESRB to re-rate Bully in lieu of "hidden content"?
In all likelyness that dead line was a load of CRAP.

lol you know you have a bad Law when even your own Lawyers dont wanna touch it.
I can see it now...

JT: But you didn't defend it!!
AG: You said it was iron-clad, a silver bullet. Why couldn't it stand on it's own merit?
JT: But you were supposed to bambozzle the judge with charts and innuendo and out-of-context clips of games that aren't even on the market! Plus bring up studies that only look at whether kids get exited playing the game or not!
AG: Get out of my office.
JT: Quitter!
Zerodash,
John Bruce supposedly drafted the the law itself, touting it as a constitutionally bulletproof law.

Driving force? Ok, here is my heartfelt and serious opinion:
John Bruce was the driving force, and reason, for the laws FAILURE.

See prior articles regarding the law and John Bruce's emails back and forth with the LA governor, AG, and senators as evidence. So, no, no one needs to blindly believe my opinion. See it for yourselves. :)

nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Wait wait wait.

You CAN'T expect them to defend it without JT's stable of experts. You know the ones he took home to sulk with him when the AG's office didn't act in a manner that he approved of.
Glad to see another failure on Jack's part. Now he can go about his attempt to get adult themed xmas ornaments banned in all of Florida, which I doubt he'll succeed in either.
Didn't Jack instruct experts and others to NOT help on this because they weren't connected to him any further?
@Mr. Pat

Waitaminit, are you serious? I've just got to read this! Link please?
@Namrepus221

I don't believe so. He withheld them because he feared the AG would do exactly what he did, namely not do anything to defend a clearly unconstitutional bill.

He wanted to avoid all involvement, so he could attempt to put 100% of the blame on the AG for "screwing it up".
Deadline for Bully? Did I miss this?
Well, by deciding to fold like a tent, at least LA cut its losses as far as how much more money they'll ultimately have to pay back to the video game industry. Unlike Jack, some people actually know when they've been fed their own nose.

If Jack thinks he can absolve himself of all blame just by pulling his "experts", he's dumber than he looks, sounds and acts. I'm calling it right now: the Posey civil trial will start the irreversible downward spiral of his career. I just hope it's not over too quickly, I want to watch him suffer, all the while yelling about how it's everyone's fault but his own.
@MaskedPixelante

Remember the "pull Bully or I'll have it declared a public nuisance!" stunt? He followed it up by demanding they re-rate it over the "gay sex" scenes (the main character can kiss other boys) /rolleyes

The ESRB blew him off by saying they already knew about that, which is why they put "sexual themes" on the rating sticker. But I guess JT wants "OMFG IT'S GOT TEH HOMOS!" on a giant sticker on the front...
Wow so the AG kinda knew he was going to lose, so instead of investing all the time and effort in making up a defense he just saved a near bankrupt state all the extra cash. Plus since the ESA didn't have to spend a extra money their bill will be less. Sounds like a smart AG, maybe he should run for Governor.

@hayabusa75
People have been saying that X case will be irreversible downward spiral of Jack's career for years. Unfortunately if you look at reality Jack's real legal career ended years ago. Its why he crusades these days. If the Posey trial starts to go south, just like the Alabama case Jack will find a way to cut and run and do minimal damage to himself. He is very good at that.
@tollwutig

Yep, a wise general knows when a battle cannot be won, and rather than go down in flames (and coincidentally dragging everyone with him), attempts to tactically retreat, saving as much as he can.

just like the Alabama case Jack will find a way to cut and run and do minimal damage to himself

Wait, so Jack's a Democrat? :P
This law was written by "concerned" law makers to make parents feel warm and fuzzy about their representatives "family values." It was shut down by "activist" judges and the "evil" faceless corporations located in the modern day sodom and gomorrah of New York and LA who want to "corrupt" their children. Does anyone honestly believe this will ever stop so long as kids have easy access to weapons? Lawmakers want an easy solution to a complex problem. That ain't gonna change no matter how many times the ESA wins these cases.
@tollwutig:

Yes, I know...it just seems like Jack has fewer allies these days then he did in past years. The wheels are falling off the video game bandwagon and I just don't think it'll take much more for him to fall on his own sword. Given how ridiculous the whole Posey civil trial is, and the fact that Jack is leading the charge, I can't envision a scenario where he gets out of this gracefully.

By the way, can I borrow some of your popcorn for the next Daniel/ Brokenscope/Wolf/whoever main event?
@jabrwock

How does that make him a democrat? What with all the "god is on my side and he will smite my enemies" crap he spouts, I thought he was conservative.
@ Fojar:

I think Jabr was just making a joke about all the "Cut 'N Run" rhetoric that the Republicans used to describe Democrats during the last election.
Awww poor Jack. He's just digging his grave deeper and deeper, one shovelfull at a time. It's kind of sad to watch him fail around like this. The only problem is I can't do something like send him pity flowers because he will try to sue me like the last time gamers sent him some. Hah well I won't pretend to be a saint...seeing him fail brings a smile to my lips. But it's like squishing a bug that got into your house. You want it squished but you still kinda feel sorry for it (or perhaps most of you don't understand...I'm told that dead bugs having sentimental value is a "girl thing"). Oh well just pretend you understand where I'm comming from anyways.
I am very happy that this law failed and Jack Thompson has lost again. However, I don't like that picture at all. The picture of Jack Thompson protesting video games, like they're drugs or something, really pisses me off. Protesting these games is ridiculous and I hope there are no more protests against the video game industry like the one in the picture up there.
The poor bastards at the AGs office got stuck defending this when I got the impression they had not been consulted about its wording and didn't want to use their limited funding to enforce it. The essentially forfeited because it was cheaper and easier than tryingto defend a law they didn't want. I'm not sure how much of a legal responsibility the AG had to defend Lousiana laws in court. Hopefully it doesn't come back on him.
Wow, so the law Jacko decided to make was pretty much not enforcable so instead of contesting bad legislation, they just decided to turn their heads and let the law get sacked? Wow. You know, they could have just skipped the wasting of tax payer time and money with this law and instead paid attention to other things like... uh... rebuilding New Orleans or something more important than writing stupid legislation.

Glad someone in the state government decided to stop wasting tax payer money dealing with that stupid law at least. So huzzah for that little thought.
To Salen: Yup. Focusing on rebuilding New Orleans would've been a much better priority. Of course, what you just said reminded me of that one quote. The one where, al least to my comprehension, Jack Thompson thought that game bill was more important than recovery from Hurricane Katrina. (One of the most insulting disgusting things he ever said, and that says a hell of a lot!)

GamePolitics ShoutBox

Posted 07/04/09 at 06:33pm
Alyric: Of course, Mark falls into the common trap about Columbine, which had nothing to do with bullying, etc. See: http://slate.msn.com/id/2099203/?GT1=3256 for a more thorough explanation.
Posted 07/04/09 at 06:32pm
PHX Corp: Read this http://www.destructoid.com/sgc-09-liveblogging-the-jack-thompson-debate-138502.phtml#ext
Posted 07/04/09 at 05:54pm
PHX Corp: JT is afraid of such ban then advocates it That's what i call a total Hypocrite
Posted 07/04/09 at 05:50pm
PHX Corp: AE: JT is a -Bleeping- Jackass
Posted 07/04/09 at 05:07pm
Andrew Eisen: JT "knew it would be a good audience." Not what he said on Tuesday.
Posted 07/04/09 at 05:01pm
Andrew Eisen: VG cause violent behavior. VG companies influence behavior to get sales. Yeah, that makes sense. (To be fair, the Twitter feed makes deciphering JT's point pretty tough.)
Posted 07/04/09 at 04:52pm
Andrew Eisen: Yes, it's been proposed but as far as I know it has not been passed. Big difference.
Posted 07/04/09 at 04:50pm
Cheater87: http://www.gamezine.co.uk/news/formats/xbox360/all-violent-video-games-be-banned-in-germany-$1301757.htm
Posted 07/04/09 at 04:49pm
Andrew Eisen: Far as I know, Germany has not banned all violent video games.
Posted 07/04/09 at 04:44pm
Cheater87: Jack wants the US to follow Germany's total video game ban.
Posted 07/04/09 at 04:42pm
Andrew Eisen: Note to JT, it is not illegal to sell kids a ticket to R-rated movies.
Posted 07/04/09 at 04:39pm
Cheater87: Jack said we would be better with no rating sytem.
Posted 07/04/09 at 04:35pm
Alareth: So what was the introduction used for Jack?
Posted 07/04/09 at 04:31pm
JDKJ: Heard one, you've heard 'em all. He repeats the same act, with the same half-truths, over and over.
Posted 07/04/09 at 04:31pm
Andrew Eisen: Using a credit card as age verification is not illegal. Hope Mark called him on that and his made up statistics.
Posted 07/04/09 at 04:30pm
Alareth: Jack is special, his mommy always told him so.
Posted 07/04/09 at 04:29pm
Andrew Eisen: JT lied about that APA causation thing again. Wonder if Mark called him on it.
Posted 07/04/09 at 04:04pm
Andrew Eisen: Follow the JT/Methenitis debate on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jtdebate
Posted 07/04/09 at 01:18pm
Andrew Eisen: Rodrigo - A fun idea but you might want to fix the typos.
Posted 07/04/09 at 12:57pm
GRIZZAM PRIME: Happy 4th of July!
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