Minnesota Gives Up Its Pursuit of Violent Videogamers

Posted by Eriq Gardner

The state of Minnesota has decided to be practical. Rather than fight for the right to punish underage buyers of violent violent games, the state's attorney general had decided to give up.

In 2006, the governor signed a law that fined those who bought video games rated "M" (Mature) or "AO" (Adult Only). The Entertainment Software Association and the Entertainment Merchants Association sued, claiming the video games were free speech. A Minnesota district court and then the 8th Circuit Court of Appeal agreed, leaving only the U.S. Supreme Court left for Minnesota's moral police.

Why have they decided to stop? The official reason is that it was concluded that the nation’s highest court takes “less than 1 percent of discretionary cases every year" and video games wouldn't make the docket (though reportedly, the district court judge had fun playing video games in the original case). But others speculate that Minnesota didn't want to pay more of the plaintiff's legal fees.