Supreme Court upholds texas porn age verification law

The Supreme Court upheld a Texas law requiring porn websites to verify the age of their visitors on Friday.

In an 6-3 ruling, the majority held Texas’ age verification law does not violate the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.

“The power to require age verification is within a State’s authority to prevent children from accessing sexually explicit content,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the majority opinion. “H. B. 1181 is a constitutionally permissible exercise of that authority.”

Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.

There are 24 states that have passed similar age verification laws.

Texas’ law requires websites that publish “sexual material harmful to minors” to verify users are over 18 years old. PornHub entirely disabled access to its website in the state last year in response to the law.

The case, Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, was brought by an advocacy group representing online pornography distributors, which argues the law burdens adults’ First Amendment rights.

This is a breaking news story and updated.

  All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].

Latest posts by Katelynn Richardson (see all)

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.