Supreme Court to weigh porn site age verification law

The Supreme Court will weigh a Texas law that requires pornography websites to verify the age of users after it agreed Monday to hear oral arguments over an industry trade group’s dispute that the requirement violates constitutional rights.

Justices will consider Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton in the next term. The state law has forced one of the largest adult websites, Pornhub, to require age verification to access its adult content. Texas is one of 19 states that have passed similar laws since the beginning of 2023, and a decision could have ramifications across the country.

The Free Speech Coalition argues the law infringes on the privacy rights of adults who are worried their private information could be inadvertently exposed due to the age verification requirements. They also argue the law does not work as intended because it exempts each engine and social media websites that also contain sexual content.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) called on the Supreme Court to reject the appeal, arguing the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit was correct to leave the state’s law in place.

The pornography industry said the laws violated the First Amendment rights of adults by asking them to submit personal information to use the pornography websites.

“Specifically, the act requires adults to comply with intrusive age verification measures that mandate the submission of personally identifying information over the internet in order to access websites containing sensitive and intimate content,” the industry wrote in court filings.

In April, the Supreme Court initially refused to put the Texas measure on hold.

The 5th Circuit previously struck down a separate provision that would require sites to post warnings about the potential health dangers of pornography, though the justices will not be weighing that measure on appeal.

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Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, Utah, and Virginia all have similar age verification laws, and Pornhub has stopped operation in many of those states as well.

Justices will hear arguments in the case after the nine-month term begins in October.

Breccan Thies contributed to this report.