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First Amendment:Video gamers throughout the country are anxiously awaiting November two when the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the situation close to our hearts.

The case, Schwarzenegger v. entertainment Merchants Association and entertainment software Association, involves a 2005 California law that seeks to restrict the sale and rental to minors of computer and video games which can be determined by the state to contain "unacceptable" violence.

As two lower courts on this specific situation and a total of twelve lower courts in comparable cases concluded, computer and video games are first Amendment-protected free speech, entitled to the same protections as books, movies and other types of artistic expression. Therefore, any attempt to impose a content-based restriction on games must demonstrate a compelling state curiosity that would be addressed by this restriction and utilize the lowest restrictive means of achieving the state's intended goal.

A compelling curiosity does not exist. California tried to argue that video games result in violent behavior, but the argument was shot down quicker than Master Chief requires down people of the Covenant. In fact, no medical evidence exists to link video match violence to genuine world violence. This fact was acknowledged by the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals in its choice to strike down the California law and by 82 social researchers who filed a legitimate short urging the Supreme Court to reject California's statute.