Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced that he has filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold Texas’ law requiring the use of age verification measures to protect kids from pornographic material online.
After Gov. Greg Abbott signed the law, known as House Bill 1811 in 2023, pornographic distributors attempted to stop the law by filing a lawsuit. However, the law was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Court, which stated that the law does not violate the First Amendment.
“Let me put this simply: these companies do not have a right to expose children to pornography,” said 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. Several of these companies, when faced with a choice between protecting children from pornography and complying with Texas law, have stopped doing business in Texas. Good riddance.
Texas’ brief explains that countries all around the world require that online pornography distributors use age verification technology. The brief also references the court ruling for Miller v. California, which states that material such as pornography is not protected by the First Amendment. It also references Brown v. Entertainment Merchant Assn., which ruled that the state can prevent the sale of sexual material to minors.
Paxton’s defense of this law has been backed by briefs from attorneys general and lawmakers across the country. Several medical doctors and organizations have also urged the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the law.
“Thank you to the numerous organizations and elected leaders who submitted amicus briefs in support of Texas’s law. I look forward to making our case at the Supreme Court of the United States,” stated Paxton.
Although going through continual litigation, Paxton has been fiercely enforcing the law. This past February, he filed suit against Aylo Global Entertainment, the operator of several pornographic websites, for not following the law.
Pornhub, operated by Aylo Global Entertainment, chose to shut down its site entirely in Texas instead of requiring age verification for users.
Texas is scheduled to argue the case before the U.S. Supreme Court on January 15, 2025.
