Supreme Gamers?

While it may be difficult to imagine a Supreme Court Justice picking up a controller for a jaunt through Postal II, during the course of actions surrounding Schwarzenegger vs. EMA such a scenario is not totally out of the realm of possibility, at least according to the lawyer who will present the videogame industry’s side in front of the nation’s highest court next week.

In a story on the Schwarzenegger vs. EMA case appearing on the American Bar Association’s (ABA) website, it was noted that California submitted a DVD to the Supreme Court that featured five minutes of violent videogame footage, with the hopes that such footage would bolster its case. The game industry chose to submit a DVD with a “more diverse array of action,” including scenes from titles like Medal of Honor and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six.

When hearing obscenity cases in the 1960s and 1970s, “some” Justices reportedly watched sexually explicit movies in order to be in tune with the issue, and in the 1990s, when Internet indecency was a hot topic, the Supreme Court Library demonstrated the series of tubes to the Court.

These historical precedents led to the following question being posed to Jenner & Block partner Paul M. Smith: “Will the justices themselves be plugging in a Play Station or Xbox to try some of the games?"

Smith answered, “It wouldn’t be shocking if they did a similar thing here.”