ESA Wins Halt of Louisiana Game Law

A district judge in Louisiana has issued a preliminary injunction that would prevent the state's violent video game law from taking effect, saying that the video game industry likely would be able to prove their First Amendment rights were being violated. The decision follows a similar pattern to those issued by judges overturning laws in Michigan, Washington, Illinois and California, which all cited free speech concerns in their rulings.

U.S. District Judge James Brady also cited the vagueness of the law as reasons from stopping it from taking effect, siding with the Entertainment Software Association, which filed the initial suit. In a statement, ESA president Douglas Lowenstein chastised the state. "In the post-Katrina era, voters should be outraged that the legislature and governor wasted their tax dollars on this ill-fated attack on video games," he said. Louisiana officials declined to comment.