The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday to uphold a Texas law requiring pornography websites to verify the age of its users.
The Court upheld the Texas law in a 6-3 vote, with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas writing the decision for the majority, while Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
“The power to require age verification is within a State’s authority to prevent children from accessing sexually explicit content,” Justice Thomas wrote.
“Texas, like many States, prohibits the distribution of sexually explicit content to children,” the Supreme Court justice continued, adding that “although that prohibition may be effective against brick-and-mortar stores, it has proved challenging to enforce against online content.”
Therefore, in 2023, Texas enacted H. B. 1181, a law requiring porn websites to verify that their users are adults.
“This requirement furthers the lawful end of preventing children from accessing sexually explicit content,” Justice Thomas wrote, adding that the law “advances the State’s important interest in shielding children from sexually explicit content.”
“And, it is appropriately tailored because it permits users to verify their ages through the established methods of providing government-issued identification and sharing transactional data,” the Supreme Court Justice added.
Sponsors of the legislation cited address their concern that the internet makes too accessible to minors “hardcore pornographic content and videos,” many of which depict “sexual violence, incest, physical aggression, sexual assault, non-consent, and teens.”
Opponents of law — who cited free speech concerns — claimed the legislation would result in adult users’ having their First Amendment rights infringed upon, because verifying their age could force them to reveal their identity.
The Court majority however, disagreed, with Justice Thomas writing, “the statute does not ban adults from accessing this material, it simply requires them to verify their age before accessing it on a covered website.”
Justice Thomas acknowledged that the law “burdens adult visitors of these websites,” but they nonetheless “have a First Amendment right to access” pornographic content.
“We granted certiorari to decide whether these burdens likely render H. B. 1181 unconstitutional under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. We hold that they do not,” Justice Thomas wrote.
“The power to require age verification is within a State’s authority to prevent children from accessing sexually explicit content,” the Supreme Court justice added.
Moreover, H. B. 1181 applies to any “commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material on an Internet website — more than one-third of which is sexual material harmful to minors,” the Court ruling stated.
The Texas law also requires a covered entity to “use reasonable age verification methods — to verify that an individual attempting to access the material is 18 years of age or older,” Justice Thomas added.
“Knowing violations subject covered entities to injunctions and civil penalties,” the Supreme Court justice asserted, adding that if a porn website is found to be in violation of the law, the Texas Attorney General may sue.
“H. B. 1181 is not the only law of its kind,” Justice Thomas noted, citing at least 21 other states that have “imposed materially similar age-verification requirements to access sexual material that is harmful to minors online.”
As Breitbart News reported, in 2023, the Texas law was temporarily blocked by a lower court, when U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra granted a preliminary injunction one day before the rule was set to take effect.
At the time, a spokesperson for Pornhub’s parent company Aylo praised the decision, saying the company was “pleased.”
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
