Court rules Texas can enforce age law for porn sites

AUSTIN — Texas can continue to enforce a new law requiring more stringent age-verification systems for pornography websites, a federal appeals court ruled.

In a divided decision, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said House Bill 1181 does not violate the First Amendment and that the state’s tougher age-verification requirement falls within the state’s “legitimate interest in preventing minors’ access to pornography,” Judge Jerry E. Smith wrote.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham said the law “infringes upon adults’ protected sexually expressive speech” and has “chilling effects” on speech by opening the door for Texas to log and track visitors to porn sites through the age-verification requirements.

The law, passed in 2023, requires porn sites to establish the age of users with a governmentissued ID or reasonable alternative. The law from Plano Republican state Rep. Matt Shaheen had wide bipartisan support and created a $10,000-a-day fine for violators.

A coalition of porn distributors sued to block the law, winning a federal court injunction last year halting its enforcement.

In last week’s ruling, the 5th Circuit Court lifted the injunction but halted enforcement of an HB1181 provision that required porn sites to display warnings about the effects of pornography on mental health. The warnings are improper government-compelled speech, the court said.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton praised the ruling.

“In Texas, companies cannot get away with making pornographic material accessible to children,” Paxton said on X. “I’m proud of this big win for HB 1181, our state law that protects children from harmful and obscene material online.”

Last month, Paxton sued the owner of Pornhub and other adult content websites in a Travis County state district court, seeking up to $1.6 million in damages on allegations that the sites were violating HB1181. No hearings have been held in the case.

The adult industry trade group Free Speech Coalition said in a statement that sexual expression is “the canary in the coal mine” in free speech court battles.

“Many of the First Amendment protections Americans hold dear are the result of hard battles fought by the adult industry and others over issues such as these,” the group said. “None of these battles has ever been simple or easy, though they have been important and just.”