One judge dissents, saying Texas law "limits adults' access to protected speech."

One judge dissents, saying Texas law “limits adults’ access to protected speech.”

Texas can enforce a law requiring age-verification systems on porn websites, the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled Thursday. The appeals court vacated an injunction against the law’s age-verification requirement but said that Texas cannot enforce a provision requiring porn websites to “display health warnings about the effects of the consumption of pornography.”

In a 2-1 decision, judges ruled that “the age-verification requirement is rationally related to the government’s legitimate interest in preventing minors’ access to pornography. Therefore, the age-verification requirement does not violate the First Amendment.”

The Texas law was challenged by the owners of Pornhub and other adult websites and an adult-industry lobby group called the Free Speech Coalition. “We disagree strenuously with the analysis of the Court majority,” the Free Speech Coalition said. “As the dissenting opinion by Judge [Patrick] Higginbotham makes clear, this ruling violates decades of precedent from the Supreme Court.”

  • glovecraft@infosec.pub
    28·
    8 months ago

    What level of verification is required? Do you have to opt in to watch porn with your ISP? Is a credit card enough? Send them a copy of your birth certificate?

    I’m curious if companies will comply or just cut Texas off completely. That may take care of the big paysites and Pornhub, but there hundreds of rehost steam sites and torrent sites that will just ignore it. In which case Texas will have to build their own great firewall.