Entertainment Software Ass'n v. Blagojevich
| Decision Date | 02 December 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 05 C 4265.,05 C 4265. |
| Citation | 404 F.Supp.2d 1051 |
| Parties | ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE ASSOCIATION; Video Software Dealers Association; and Illinois Retail Merchants Association, Plaintiffs, v. Rod BLAGOJEVICH, in his official capacity as Governor of the State of Illinois; Lisa Madigan, in her official capacity as Attorney General of the State of Illinois; and Richard A. Devine, in his official capacity as State's Attorney of Cook County, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois |
Paul March Smith, Katherine A. Fallow, Kathleen R. Hartnett, Jenner & Block LLP, Washington, DC, David P. Sanders, Wade A. Thompson, Jenner & Block, LLC, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiffs.
Andrew Laurence Dryjanski, Ellecia L. Parsell-Burke, Leeann Richey, Rachel Jana Fleischmann, Office of the Illinois Attorney General, Michael J. Kasper, Fletcher Topol O'Brien & Kasper, Laura Cha-Yu Liu, Patrick Edward Deady, Hogan Marren, Ltd., Limo T. Cherian, O'Rourke, McCloskey & Moody, Stephen L. Garcia, Jeffrey S. McCutchan, Louis R. Hegeman, Patrick T. Driscoll, Jr., Cook County State's Attorney, Cook County State's Attorney's Office, Chicago, IL, for Defendants.
FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
Plaintiffs Entertainment Software Association, Video Software Dealers Association, and Illinois Retail Merchants Association sued several state and local officials seeking to enjoin the enforcement of Illinois's Violent Video Games Law and Sexually Explicit Video Games Law. Plaintiffs moved for a preliminary injunction, and the Court ordered a hearing. All parties consented to combine the preliminary injunction hearing with trial on the merits. This constitutes the Court's findings of fact and conclusions of law under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 52(a). For the reasons stated below, the Court concludes that both statutes violate the First Amendment and therefore issues a permanent injunction against their implementation.
The plaintiffs are associations of entities that create, publish, distribute, sell, and rent video games. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) represents video game creators and publishers; the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) represents home video retailers; and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA) represents Illinois merchants.
The ESA is comprised of publishers of interactive entertainment, including video games, computer games, and mobile games. Lowenstein Dep. at 18. Its mission is "to serve the business and public affairs interests of the entertainment software industry." Id. at 25. To achieve this mission, ESA implements a number of programs, such as government relations, antipiracy enforcement, intellectual property policy, and media relations programs. Id. at 26. Among its many activities, ESA also evaluates proposed legislation regulating the entertainment software industry and responds to those proposals based on the mandate given by the membership. Members are updated on the ESA's positions on particular legislation, including state statutes regulating video games based on content, contemporaneously. Id. at 38.
The VSDA is a trade association for the home video industry that includes retailers and distributors of home video products, including video games. Andersen Dep. at 7. The association's many activities include tracking proposed regulations of video games, responding to those regulations, and pursuing litigation if necessary. Decisions to engage in litigation are made by the VSDA board of directors. Although members do not vote on the VSDA's stance on all relevant legislation or on the association's decision to initiate litigation, they can weigh in on VSDA's actions in a numbers of ways, including telephone calls, emails, and letters. Id. at 30-43.
IRMA has approximately one thousand retail members, though it is unclear how many sell or rent video games. Vite Dep. at 26. IRMA's activities include examining pending legislation in Illinois, developing position papers, and communicating the association's position to the General Assembly. IRMA communicates with its members about these activities through its website and a weekly newsletter published while the General Assembly is in session. Vite Dep. at 8-10. With regard to the legislation at issue in this case, IRMA discussed the proposed legislation with between fifty and one hundred members before it was passed. Id. at 61. IRMA staff typically determines whether the organization should participate in litigation after discussing the issue with affected members. Id. at 40-41. In deciding to join this case, IRMA president David Vite consulted with several leaders of the association and also consulted members directly affected by the legislation. Id. at 43, 55.
The defendants are Illinois public officials: Rod Blagojevich is the Governor of Illinois; Lisa Madigan is the Attorney General of Illinois; and Richard Devine is the State's Attorney for Cook County, which includes Chicago.
Video games are one of the newest and most popular forms of artistic expression. They most resemble films and television shows by telling stories through pictures, text, and sound, but they also parallel popular books, such as the Choose Your Own Adventure series, which enable readers to make decisions about how the plot and characters will develop. Video games are generally designed to entertain players and viewers, but they can also inform and advocate viewpoints. They are therefore considered protected expression under the First Amendment. See Am, Amusement Machine Ass'n v. Kendrick, 244 F.3d 572, 579 (7th Cir.2001).
The video game industry has adopted a voluntary rating system to advise consumers about the content of video games. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), a division of the ESA, assigns ratings to games and provides content descriptors.1 The rating system is voluntary. Most video game publishers, however, submit video games to the ESRB for review, and most video game retailers refuse to sell or rent games that have not been rated by the ESRB. Lowenstein Dep. at 72-73, 103-04.
Illinois Public Act 94-0315, which was adopted in July 2002, expands the state's regulation of the sale and rental of video games. The Act amends 720 ILCS 5/11-21, which criminalizes the distribution to an individual under the age of eighteen of material that is "harmful to minors." It also creates two new criminal statutes: the Violent Video Games Law (VVGL) and the Sexually Explicit Video Games Law (SEVGL). Plaintiffs challenge the VVGL and the SEVGL, but they do not challenge the amendments to 720 ILCS 5/11-21.
The VVGL establishes criminal penalties for selling or renting violent video games to minors, allowing such games to be purchased using a self-checkout electronic scanner, and failing to label such games with a two inch by two inch label stating "18". 720 ILCS 5/12A-25.2 The statute defines "violent video games" as those that include:
depictions of or simulations of human-on-human violence in which the player kills or otherwise causes serious physical harm to another human. "Serious physical harm" includes depictions of death, dismemberment, amputation, decapitation, maiming, disfigurement, mutilation of body parts, or rape.
Id. 12A-10(e). Violations of the statute are punishable by fines ranging from five hundred to one thousand dollars. Id. 12A-15(a)-(c) & 12A-25(b).
The SEVGL creates criminal penalties for selling or renting sexually explicit video games to minors, allowing such games to be purchased using a self-checkout electronic scanner, and failing to label such games with a two inch by two inch label stating "18". 720 ILCS 5/12B-15; 5/12B-25. The SEVGL has two additional requirements. Video game retailers must post eighteen by twenty-four inch signs within five feet of every video game display or point of sale or rental informing customers about the ESRB rating system, and they must make brochures about the ESRB rating system available to customers. Id. 12B-30 & 12B-35. The statute defines "sexually explicit video games" as including:
those that the average person, applying contemporary community standards would find, with respect to minors, is designed to appeal or pander to the prurient interest and depict or represent in a manner patently offensive with respect to minors, an actual or simulated sexual act or sexual contact, an actual or simulated normal or perverted sexual act or a lewd exhibition of the genitals or post-pubescent female breast.
Id. 12B-10(e).
In adopting the VVGL and the SEVGL, the Illinois General Assembly made findings about the accessibility of violent and sexually explicit video games to minors. Specifically, the legislative record includes reports by the Federal Trade Commission and the Illinois State Crime Commission about the ability of minors to purchase M-rated video games. In 2004, the FTC found that sixty-nine percent of unaccompanied teenagers were able to purchase M-rated video games, Def.'s Exh. D to 56.1(a) Statement at BL 169. In 2005, the Illinois State Crime Commission found that a fifteen-year old boy was able to buy M-rated games at eleven of fifteen, or seventy-three percent, of retailers visited. Id. at BL 266-69. The 2004 FTC study also examined whether unaccompanied teenagers could purchase analogous media products in other formats. The FTC concluded that eighty-one percent of unaccompanied minors could purchase R-rated movies, and eighty-three percent could purchase music with explicit lyrics — far more than were able to purchase M-rated video games. Id. at 152, 160.
With regard to the VVGL, the legislative record includes scholarly articles, news articles, written testimony, and transcripts of House debates and House Civil Judiciary Committee Hearings discussing the impact of violent video games on minors. See generally Ex....
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