By Chinh Vo Supreme Court to Decide on Law Regulating Sale of Violent Video Games to Kids Wired reports that the Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether states may forbid the sale or rental of violent video games to children. The Court will review a ruling by the Ninth Circuit that struck down a California law, imposing fines for selling “patently offensive” or “morbid” games to people under the age of 18, on First Amendment grounds. Similar laws have ... Read More...

By Kassity Liu Amazon Files Lawsuit to Protect Consumer Privacy On April 19, 2010, online retailer Amazon.com filed a lawsuit against the North Carolina Department of Revenue (DOR), asking a federal judge to preempt the DOR’s request for detailed information on consumers’ purchases from the company’s website. CNET and Ars Technica reported that Amazon is pushing back because it believes the DOR’s request violates consumers’ rights under the First Amendment and the Video Privacy Protection Act. In its complaint, Amazon ... Read More...

Supreme Court Declares Animal Cruelty Statute Violates First Amendment By Debbie Rosenbaum – Edited by Chinh Vo United States v. Stevens, No. 08–769 (U.S., April 20, 2010) Slip Opinion The Supreme Court affirmed the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which had held that 18 U.S.C. § 48, a federal statute criminalizing the commercial production, sale, or possession of depictions of cruelty to animals, was an unconstitutional abridgment of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and did not serve a compelling governmental interest. In an 8-1 ruling, ... Read More...

Sixth Circuit Upholds Ohio Anti-Pornography Statute By Avis Bohlen – Edited by Dmitriy Tishyevich American Bookseller’s Foundation for Free Expression v. Strickland, Nos. 07-4375/4376 (6th Cir., April 15, 2010) Opinion On April 15, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed an Ohio district court’s decision to enjoin the enforcement of an anti-pornography child protection statute, Ohio Revised Code § 2907.31(D)(1), which criminalizes displaying or disseminating harmful materials to juveniles.  The court held that as narrowly construed ... Read More...

Federal Circuit Affirms Exclusion and Cease-and-Desist Orders against GPS Chipmaker By Gary Pong – Edited by Dmitriy Tishyevich SiRF Tech., Inc. v. ITC, Appeal 2009-1262 (Fed. Cir., Apr. 12, 2010). Slip Opinion The Federal Circuit affirmed a decision by the International Trade Commission (“ITC”), which found that SiRF Technology, Inc. (“SiRF”) violated 19 U.S.C. § 1337 by unlawfully importing and selling Global Positioning System (“GPS”) devices that infringed upon patents owned by Global Locate, Inc. and Broadcom Corp. (collectively, “Global ... Read More...