"Son of Sam" laws prohibit criminals from receiving payments for their stories. The Supreme Court ruled in 1991 that the laws violate protected speech under the First Amendment.

California thought its law, enacted in 1983 and later revised, passed constitutional muster. The state courts disagreed and today the Supreme Court let stand the state court's ruling that the ban is unconstitutional.

"The U.S. Supreme Court let stand on Monday a ruling that a law that bars felons from cashing in on their crime stories violates free-speech rights, in a case stemming from Frank Sinatra Jr.'s 1963 kidnapping."

"The justices declined to review a California Supreme Court ruling that struck down as unconstitutional the law that requires convicted criminals to give all money earned from book, movie or other deals to their victims or to the state."

"The Supreme Court last addressed the issue in 1991, when it unanimously ruled that a New York law that bans payments to accused or convicted criminals for books about their crimes violates the First Amendment."

"The New York law was known as the "Son of Sam" law because it was adopted after disclosures that serial killer David Berkowitz had been offered large sums of money for the rights to his story. It was the nation's first such law."