As the Supreme Court considered a California law on violent video games in its 2010-11 term, clerks for Justice Stephen Breyer, then 72, set up a big-screen television in his chambers and connected it to a game console. . Then Judge Elena Kagan came to play Grand Theft Auto. “There we were, killing everybody left and right,” Kagan said at a 2015 event at Harvard Law School, much to the delight of the audience.
Breyer “thought it was all really horrible, really disgusting and despicable,” Kagan continued. And I said: ‘Next round! Next round!’” Their legal conclusions ultimately matched their internal reactions: Kagan voted with a seven-member majority to struck down a California law that banned the sale of certain violent games to minors. Breyer countered, citing studies linking violent games to aggressive behavior, particularly among children.
