California, June 28: The United States Supreme Court has struck down a Californian law banning the sale or renting of violent video games to minors.

The Court voted 7-2 to uphold an appeal court ruling that declared the law contrary to free speech rights enshrined in the US Constitution.

"Our cases hold that minors are entitled to a significant degree of First Amendment protection. Government has no free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which they may be exposed," the BBC quoted the Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, as saying. Video game publishers had challenged the 2005 measure, which never took effect due to the course of legal proceedings.

The 2005 California law prohibited the sale of violent video games to children "where a reasonable person would find that the violent content appeals to a deviant or morbid interest of minors, is patently offensive to prevailing community standards as to what is suitable for minors, and causes the game as a whole to lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors".

Under the law, parents could still purchase violent video games for their children, but retailers caught selling the titles to minors faced a fine of upto 1,000 dollars (625 pounds) for each game.

Courts in six other US states have struck down bans.

The US video game industry has about 10.5 billion dollars (6.55 billion pounds) in annual sales. (ANI)