Supreme Court to review Texas’ law for porn sites
WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court will decide if a Texas law requiring online age verification to access pornographic websites infringes on the free speech rights of adult users.
The court on Tuesday agreed to hear a challenge to the law from a trade group representing the adult entertainment industry.
Passed last year, the law requires porn sites to verify the age of users with a government-issued ID or reasonable alternative. Other states have similar requirements, and an Indiana law passed earlier this year is on hold amid a court challenge.
The trade group says that rule poses “unique security and privacy concerns” by exposing users to the risk of inadvertent disclosures, leaks, or hacks.
“While purportedly seeking to limit minors’ access to online sexual content, the Act imposes significant burdens on adults’ access to constitutionally protected expression,” the group told the court.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton responded that nothing about the requirement is exceptional.
“Instead, it simply requires the pornography industry that makes billions of dollars from trafficking in obscenity to take commercially reasonable steps to ensure that those who access the material are adults,” he wrote in a filing.
In March, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the age verification requirement and struck down a different part of the law requiring health warnings.
The American Civil Liberties Union supports the industry’s challenge to the law.
“The Fifth Circuit’s ruling wrongly allowed the government to rob adults of their online privacy and burden their access to protected speech, all under the guise of protecting children,” said Vera Eidelman, an attorney with ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “Over the years, we’ve seen similar misguided laws about everything from drive-in movies to video games to websites, and courts have repeatedly struck these laws down.”