Supreme Court Upholds Texas Law Requiring Age Verification For Porn Sites
The Supreme Court also ruled 6–3 on Friday that a Texas law requiring age verification to access porn sites is constitutional and does not infringe on adults’ First Amendment rights.
The ruling, in Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, could impact similar laws in at least 20 states, and comes as lawmakers work to regulate content children consume online. It could also trigger a wave of online speech restrictions as states grapple with protecting minors for harm.
INSIDE THE CASE
For the majority, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the law intends to protect children and does not directly impede access to protected material for adults.
The Majority Opinion: "The statute advances the State’s important interest in shielding children from sexually explicit content. And, it is appropriately tailored because it permits users to verify their ages through the established methods of providing government-issued identification and sharing transactional data," Justice Thomas wrote.
The Dissenting Opinion: Justice Elena Kagan argued the law creates a “chilling effect” on free speech and violates privacy rights by requiring adults to give up sensitive information – like government-issued IDs or facial scans to prove they are 18 or older – to access explicit sites.
The dissenting Justices reinforced that they do not believe children should have access to porn sites, but worried the law creates an unconstitutional burden for adults.
"Many reasonable people, after all, view the speech at issue here as ugly and harmful for any audience. But the First Amendment protects those sexually explicit materials, for every adult. So a State cannot target that expression, as Texas has here, any more than is necessary to prevent it from reaching children," Justice Kagan wrote.
