Texas defends requiring ID for porn to SCOTUS: “We’ve done this forever”
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments that could determine if a Texas age-gating law preventing kids from accessing pornography online is overly burdensome for adults. A ruling against Texas could put an end to allegedly invasive age-verification laws in nearly 20 states.
The question before the court is whether the 5th Circuit was right to stay a preliminary injunction that had previously been blocking Texas from enforcing the law or whether that decision should be reversed and remanded based on the level of constitutional scrutiny that the 5th Circuit applied.
Texas and the 5th Circuit agreed that a rational basis for limiting access to speech, which is the lowest level of scrutiny, applied.
But the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued Texas, arguing that strict scrutiny may be necessary. The civil rights groups claim that the statutory language—requiring age-gating on any site where porn comprises a third of its content—risks blocking adults from accessing protected speech, including both sexual and potentially non-sexual content, if adults wish to avoid showing ID on any given site.
A lawyer for groups suing, Derek Shaffer, told justices Wednesday that everyone agrees that Texas has a compelling interest in restricting minors from accessing adult content online.
