AG Paxton asking SCOTUS to uphold Texas law requiring age verification for porn sites
SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — The battle over age verification for pornographic websites continues, but the end looks to be on the horizon.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is filing a brief with the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), asking it to uphold House Bill 1181. This is the Texas law requiring pornography companies to institute reasonable age-verification measures to block children from material some would consider obscene.
Texas will argue the case before SCOTUS on January 15, 2025.
”Let me put this simply: these companies do not have a right to expose children to pornography,” said Attorney General Paxton. ”Texas has a clear interest in protecting children, and we have been successful defending this commonsense age verification law against a powerful global industry.”
Attorney General Paxton said in a Tuesday release several companies have chosen to stop doing business in Texas, as opposed to requiring age verification.
Immediately after Texas passed HB 1181 in 2023, some distributors of pornography sued to stop the law. However, Attorney General Paxton scored a victory in court when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled the age-verification law did not violate the First Amendment. As a result, Texas was allowed to enforce the law while litigation continued. Now the pornography companies have appealed to the Supreme Court, asking for the Fifth Circuit’s ruling to be overturned.
Dozens of States, lawmakers, and experts submitted amicus briefs supporting Attorney General Paxton’s defense of the age verification law, including a coalition of two dozen State Attorneys General, a group of more than 60 lawmakers from 15 States, members of the Texas Senate, and more than 20 U.S. Congressmen and Senators. Numerous medical experts and organizations such as the Foundation for Addiction Research urged the Supreme Court to uphold the law due to the dangerous impact pornography has on children.
Attorney General Paxton has enforced the law while litigation continues, suing Aylo Global Entertainment, the operator of pornography websites including Pornhub, for refusing to follow the law. Rather than institute the required age verification measures, Pornhub opted to shut down its site entirely in Texas.
Companies violating the age verification requirements required by HB 1181 will be subject to fines of up to $10,000 per day, an additional $10,000 per day if the corporation illegally retains identifying information, and $250,000 if a child is exposed to pornographic content due to not properly verifying a user’s age.
You can read the Texas brief by clicking here.