ESA Intends to Collect 1.1 Million in Legal Fees from California July 25, 2011

Just as they had with every state they successfully defeated who tried to pass illegal laws, the ESA has just issued a press release saying they intend to collect $1.1 million dollars from the state of California after defeating them on the Supreme Court level. This money will cover their legal expenses fighting their unconstitutional video game law.

The intention of the ESA all along has been to show these states that passing illegal laws would fail and end up harming their states more than the media publicity brought by their passage would help their political careers individually. According to the ESA, they were able to win eight times in similar cases and collect fees in every win from the various states they defeated. They have made it no secret to the states they will do this to them if they pass laws that violate the first amendment. In fact this tactic had prevented one state governor from signing a similar law which already had passed in the legislature.

As I feel is becoming a repeated statement about the state of California, you couldn’t tell them any of this. Leland Yee (D) and the Govenator (R) thought they were right and they were going to force this passage unless they were stopped. And now, like all tragedies, it is the people of that state who will suffer. The law was clearly not on their side. The similar state laws all lost. They were wasting further state money in legal defenses appealing in a futile battle. No one forced Yee or the Govenator to continue to appeal the law, but they did it anyway at the state’s expense.

So now California has one more bill to pay, one they CHOSE to pay. The Govenator did not seek a new term, but If I was a voter in the state, I would be asking for Yee’s resignation right about now.