What Do You Think About Violent Video Game Ruling?

California cannot regulate the sale or rental of violent video games to children, according to a Monday Supreme Court ruling, which threw out the state's ban on the sale or rental of violent video games to minors in a 7-2 vote.

The court majority said the games are protected by the First Amendment right of free speech.

"No doubt a state possesses legitimate power to protect children from harm," wrote Justice Antonin Scalia in the opinion of the court. "But that does not include a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed."

The California law, which was authored in 2005 by former assemblyman and now state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, would have prohibited the sale or rental of violent games to anyone under 18. Retailers who violated the act would have been fined up to $1,000 for each infraction.

“Unfortunately, the majority of the Supreme Court once again put the interests of corporate America before the interests of our children,” Yee said in a statement Monday. “As a result of their decision, Wal-Mart and the video game industry will continue to make billions of dollars at the expense of our kids’ mental health and the safety of our community.”

Should the state be able to prevent the sale of violent games to children? Are complaints of graphic violence in the games warranted?