Supreme Court to hear challenge to Texas pornography restriction

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a free speech challenge to a provision of a Texas law seeking to prevent young people from accessing pornographic content online.

The justices took up an appeal brought by the Free Speech Coalition, a pornography industry trade group, as well as several companies.

The court in April had declined to block the law while litigation continued.

The challengers argue that the 2023 law violates the Constitution’s First Amendment by requiring anyone using the platforms in question, including adults, to submit personal information.

The law, H.B. 1181, requires that platforms verify users’ ages by submitting information about their identities.

The provision is aimed at limiting children’s access to sexually explicit content, but the the lawsuit focuses on how those measures also affect adults.

The case will be argued and decided in the court's next term, which begins in October and ends in June 2025.

A federal judge had ruled that the provision at issue was problematic because it has a much broader impact than merely restricting access to minors.

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals then ruled for the state and refused to put its decision on hold pending Supreme Court review.

In the aftermath of the appeals court ruling, several online pornography platforms, including Pornhub, prevented people in Texas from accessing their sites out of concern about the provision going into effect.