So, the State of Illinois is not having good luck with the gaming industry. First you have a U.S. District Judge deem the States new videogame law unconstitutional. Second you have said Judge order the State to pay the ESA $510,528.64 in legal fees.
Anotherwords, Illinois got "owned" and has to figuratively pay for it. The ESA was obviously happy with the ruling. "Judge Kennelly's rulings send two irrefutable messages -- not only are efforts to ban the sale of violent video games clearly unconstitutional, they are a waste of taxpayer dollars," said Douglas Lowenstein, president of the ESA, the trade group representing U.S. computer and video game publishers. "The sad fact is that the State of Illinois knew this law was unconstitutional from the beginning. Taxpayers have a right to know that over half a million of their dollars and countless government hours were thrown away in this fruitless effort."
Naturally the State of Illinois wasn't to happy about this. "I am very disappointed that the state of Illinois has to pay these fees for what was such a clearly unconstitutional law from the start," said Senator Cullerton, Illinois 6th District State Senator. "When I spoke against the law in Springfield, I predicted we would have to pay legal fees. The amount ordered paid to the plaintiffs by Judge Kennelly doesn't even count the substantial fees the State will have to pay its own lawyers."
In his decision declaring the law unconstitutional, Judge Matthew S. Kennelly forcefully sided with the ESA, writing, "If controlling access to allegedly 'dangerous' speech is important in promoting the positive psychological development of children, in our society that role is properly accorded to parents and families, not the State."
I bolded the important stuff, in case the Senators and Lawyers missed it. Let's review shall we? Every single law that has been passed or proposed by any State in this country has either never made it to law, or been ruled unconstitutional. What do you think that tells us?
Link: IGN
Link: 1up story
