The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to temporarily block a Texas law that requires pornographic artists to determine the age of their users. In a brief unsigned order, the justices rejected a request by a protest organization, adding an adult industry association, to suspend the law to give them time to seek a review of a ruling through a federal appeals court.
There is no public disagreement with Tuesday’s order.
The law, known as H. B. 1181, was originally scheduled to go into effect last September. But opponents, led by the Free Speech Coalition, went to federal court in August, questioning the law’s constitutionality.
U. S. District Judge David Alan Ezra barred the state from enforcing the age verification requirement, concluding that it most likely violated the First Amendment. By requiring adults to submit non-public data, Ezra explained, the law would deter adults from accessing Internet sites due to considerations of identity theft and extortion. In addition, Ezra added, other opportunities, such as content filtering systems, are better suited to achieve the state’s purpose of protecting young people from sexual content.
The U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit stayed Ezra’s order while the state appealed, and in March, a divided panel of the Court of Appeals issued a ruling striking down Ezra’s injunction because it implemented the age verification provision.
Protesters appeared before the Supreme Court earlier this month, calling on the Supreme Court to intervene. They argued that the court will most likely grant review and overturn the Fifth Circuit’s ruling, saying the case concerns “the uniform and faithful application of this Court’s precedent to the fashionable Internet as new regulations cross the sacred ground of the First Amendment. “In addition, they added, “profound and irreparable harm arises” from the “cooling of adults’ access to sexual expression, especially now that Texas is conducting enforcement proceedings. ” as opposed to non-compliant internet sites. On the other hand, they told the judges, keeping the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in abeyance “for a limited period of time will not materially harm Texas. “
Texas suggested the justices allow it to keep the law in place for the time being, telling them that the law “simply asks the pornography industry, which makes billions of dollars promoting coal, to take commercially moderate steps to ensure that those that are not covered by the pornography industry. ” devices such as smartphones, which in turn “creates a public health crisis. “
Texas rejected the challengers’ suggestion that it would be urgent to ask the court to intervene. Although the law has been in effect since last fall, the state noted that when the appeals court first stayed Ezra’s order, the challengers “waited more than six months after the Fifth Circuit Committee on the Merits issued its opinion before appearing before this court. “
This article gave the impression that Howe on the Court.
Posted in Emergency Calls & Requests
Case: Free Speech Coalition vs. Paxton