A Californian appeals court has said Hasta la Vista to laws seeking to ban the sale or rental of violent video games to minors.
The law violates minors' rights under the Constitution's First and 14th amendments, according to the three-judge panel's unanimous ruling. Systems such as the industry's voluntary rating system already allow parents to protect children from the "unquestionably violent", wrote Judge Consuelo Callahan.
The justices dismissed studies suggesting violent games can be linked to aggression, anti-social behavior and desensitization to violence.
"I'll be back," said the law's author, state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, who wants Attorney General Jerry Brown to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Meanwhile Californian governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was reviewing the ruling, according to spokeswoman Camille Anderson.
"The governor believes strongly we have a responsibility to our children and our communities to protect against the effects of video games depicting ultra-violent actions," she said of Schwarzenegger - star of such violent movies as The Terminator, Predator and Commando.
