Kagan’s Mortal Kombat

June 29th, 2013

The Justice gave this great anecdote from her remarks at the Aspen Institute (rough transcription):

Before Schwarzenegger v. EMA oral arguments, I asked my clerk for an iconic violent video game that everyone would know about. Clerk said “Mortal Kombat.” I asked, what’s that?

Here is the question she asked in EMA:

JUSTICE KAGAN: It’s a candidate, meaning, yes, a reasonable jury could find that Mortal Combat [sic], which is an iconic game, which I am sure half of the clerks who work for us spend considerable amounts of time in their adolescence playing.
JUSTICE SCALIA: I don’t know what she’s talk[ing] about.