Lawsuit against hotel that didn't block pornographic images

[Volokh, Eugene]

	In McCombs v. Value Lodge, No. VC047178, Cal. Superior Ct.,
filed Aug. 23, 2006, Edwina McCombs and her two daughters (age 8 and 9),
checked into a Value Lodge.  Value Lodge, like other hotels, provides
in-room movies, including pornographic movies; I take it that, like
other hotels, guest may ask that such movies be blocked, but by default
they are not blocked.  The girls saw pornographic material, and McCombs
is suing the hotel for negligence, intentional infliction of emotional
distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and premises
liability.  McCombs' theory is that the hotel should have warned the
parents of the risk, and perhaps should have blocked access to the
movies in the first place, given that McCombs apparently told hotel
staff "that she was staying in the room with her two young daughters."

	Any First Amendment problems with such tort liability?  I take
it the major objection would be vagueness or overbreadth or some such; I
think a statute that required hotels that provide pornography to warn
patrons of this, or to by default block access to the pornography if
hotel staff know that minors are staying in the room, would be
constitutional, but no such statute was present here.

	Eugene