I’m pleased to report that Don Falk, Rita Lomio, and I are filing today an amicus brief in the Court’s forthcoming violent video games case (Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Ass’n), on behalf of Profs. David Cole, Ken Karst, David Post, Martin Redish, William Van Alstyne, Jonathan Varat, and Adam Winkler. The brief aims to distinguish the obscenity-as-to-minors-adapted-to-violence standard in the California statute from the obscenity-as-to-minors-as-to-sex standard upheld by the Court in Ginsberg v. New York (1968), and argues that the California statutory standard is unconstitutionally vague. I like to think that the brief does a good job of concretely explaining the difference between the two standards. If you’re interested in the case, or in First Amendment law, you might want to check it out.
Don and Rita are colleagues of mine at Mayer Brown LLP (the firm for which I am a part-part-part-time Academic Affiliate), and the brief was done pro bono by the firm.