The United States Supreme Court has ruled against the state of California in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, No. 08-1448, the appeal previously known as Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association. The New York Times (thanks Neutronbeam) reports the court ruled 7-2 that this law violated the First Amendment of the Constitution, with Justices Thomas and Beyer the dissenting votes. This was California State Senator Leland Yee's latest attempt to pass a bill restricting the sale of violent games to minors, which had already been struck down not once, but twice. Here's word on the decision:

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for five justices in the majority in the video games decision, Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, No. 08-1448, said the court refused to create a new category of speech beyond the protection of the First Amendment. Depictions of violence, he said, have never been subject to government regulation.

The fact that the law tried to protect children, Justice Scalia added, did not alter the analysis. Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined the majority opinion.