Today marks an important court date for the video game industry, the state of Louisiana and for Miami attorney and anti-game activist Jack Thompson.

Attorneys representing the ESA (game publishers) and EMA (game retailers and renters) will face off against the Louisiana Attorney General's office in Federal District Court in Baton Rouge. At the hearing, the game industry will seek a preliminary injunction to block the state's new video game law from taking effect.

GamePolitics readers will recall that Louisiana Rep. Roy Burrell's violent video game bill was largely drafted by game industry nemesis Thompson. Gov. Kathleen Babineux Blanco signed the legislation into law earlier this month, and the new statute was scheduled to take effect immediately. However, in response to the video game industry's lawsuit, Federal District Court Judge James Brady issued a temporary restraining order pending today's hearing.

In a brief filed with the Federal District Court on Tuesday, Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti (seen at left) expressed confidence that the state's new video game law would stand up to the industry's challenge. In particular the Attorney General touted the manner in which Thompson drafted the bill. Foti's response to the injunction request says in part:

"Plaintiffs (ESA & EMA) seem to assume that the Louisiana Legislature and the Governor of our state have passed this act in a vacuum, totally unaware of the statutes and case law that has been published prior to 2006."

"However, Louisiana's present enactment of (the video game law) was specifically crafted and enacted with the constitutional, statutory and case law in mind. It is the most narrowly drawn statute of its nature to date and incorporates specific preliminary steps which must be taken prior to its enforcement by any prosecutorial agency."

In a June 16th press release, ESA President Doug Lowenstein expressed a much different view of Louisiana's new law, saying, "Despite what the legislature has been told, the Louisiana video game restriction law is not unique - a very similar measure was passed in Michigan and promptly overturned in federal court. The Louisiana law suffers from the same constitutional defects... It will meet the same fate, and the taxpayers of Louisiana will end up having to pay for the legislature's reckless gamble."

Read Attorney General Foti's entire 13-page brief here.

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