The video game industry was all smiles, hugs, fist-bumps and high-fives this week, as the Supreme Court of the United States definitively crushed the California legislation that aimed to regulate sales of unsuitable and especially violent content to minors.  Influential figures, including Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello, Gearbox Software President and CEO Randy Pitchford and Irrational Games creative director Ken Levine, praised the Court’s decision, which, by a vote of 7-to-2 penguins, recognized the video game industry as a Constitutionally protected medium for expression and creativity.

Lost among the overt glee, though, were revelations that, yes, the Justices play video games, too.

Conservative, long-standing Justice Antonin Scalia, for instance, loves Plants vs. Zombies, PopCap Games’ tower-defense strategy game that pits, well, plants against zombies.

“Actually it’s more like an addiction,” Scalia admitted, “I just can’t get enough of that game.”

“Those undead walking sacks of maggot meat can tread on my lawn, but they will never sully my new anaconda-skin carpeting,” he enthusiastically added.

As for the other Justices, they run the gamut from fighting-game fans to puzzle junkies to in-depth RPG fanatics.

“People think that we’re just cranky old farts, but we like leisure time, too,” Scalia said. “Ya know, we don’t just sit around drinking prune juice, listening to swing jazz and sharing stories about long, shoeless walks in the snow.  We definitely do that stuff, but we do play games… mostly puzzle games and adventure games.  Most of us don’t really like the gory stuff or the shooters.”

Chief Justice John Roberts is the exception, Scalia explained.

“The Chief plays a lot of Dragon Age II,” he said. “He often comes to work with pizza stains on his robe, and you can tell that he pulled an all-nighter.”

“We aren’t all like that… so heavily into video games,” Scalia added, “but we don’t vilify them — far from it, actually.”

As it turns out, Apple devices are pretty popular among the group.  Every Justice has either an iPhone or an iPad.

“Justices Kagan, Sotomayor and Alito are always tapping on their iPads,” Scalia said.  “If I hear Angry Birds one more time, I might go judicial.  Why do you think that Justice (Clarence) Thomas always looks so pissed off?”