Increasingly, it seems like most of the high-profile decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court come down to 5-4 decisions, with Justice Kennedy the swing vote. But there have been a couple of notable exceptions recently. Notably ironic, too, as they were cases where common sense didn’t appear to get its day in court.
The Court was almost unanimous (8-1, Justice Alito dissenting) in agreeing that the First Amendment does, indeed, protect the Westboro Baptist Church when it protests military funerals with its “God Hates Fags” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” signs.
The other? In a 7-2 (Justices Breyer and Thomas dissenting) decision, the Court ruled that a California state law that restricted the sale of violent video games to minors violated the First Amendment right to free speech. Lawmakers had defined “violent” as activity involving “killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting an image of a human being.”