The US Supreme Court yesterday denied a request to block a Texas law that requires age-verification systems on porn websites. The Supreme Court denial leaves in place, at least for now, an appeals court ruling that said Texas can enforce the law.
"The application for stay presented to Justice [Samuel] Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied," the one-sentence order issued yesterday said.
Pornhub disabled its website in Texas after the appeals court ruling in March. Pornhub and other websites owned by the same company have also gone dark in Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Utah, and Virginia in protest of similar laws.
Texas sued Pornhub owner Aylo Global for violating the law in February. Texas also sued the companies that operate Chaturbate and xHamster.
"Children will continue to be protected from harmful content in Texas," state Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote after yesterday's order. The Texas law applies to websites in which more than one-third of the content "is sexual material harmful to minors." Those websites must "use reasonable age verification methods" to limit their material to people who are at least 18 years old.
Petition to hear case still pending
A US District Court judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the Texas law in August 2023. But the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit issued a temporary stay that allowed the law to take effect in September 2023, and vacated the injunction in March 2024.
An adult-industry lobby group called the Free Speech Coalition and other challengers asked the Supreme Court for a stay on April 12. The case implicates "the uniform and faithful application of this Court's precedents to the modern-day Internet as novel regulations traverse hallowed First Amendment ground," the application for a stay said.