Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton He is fighting to uphold a Texas law that he says prevents the pornography industry from targeting children with harmful content.
It was passed in 2023 and signed into law by Texas Governor Greg AbbottThe law requires porn sites to verify users' ages through official documents such as a driver's license or government-issued ID card. By law, failure to perform age verification results in fines.
Meanwhile, a group of porn sites calling themselves the Free Speech Coalition says Texas law restricts their First Amendment rights and places an undue burden on Texas adults from accessing their content.
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Dozens of plaintiffs accuse Pornhub and its parent company, MindGeek, of monetizing sexual assault. (Adrien Fillon/Noor Photo)
Pornhub, the country's most popular adult content site, has gone so far Disable access to their website for all users in Texas After the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to uphold the law.
The two sides finally met face to face on Wednesday to present their case in court supreme court.
For its part, the nation's highest court appeared united in agreeing with Paxton's argument that states have a vested interest in limiting children's access to pornographic content. However, some justices still appear to have concerns about whether the prohibitions imposed by Texas law are too broad and could affect other areas of the law. Freedom of expression.
The question before the court now is whether Texas law should be subject to “rational basis” review or “strict scrutiny,” the latter of which requires Texas to meet the narrowest standards to support age verification requirements.
US Supreme Court on November 15, 2023 in Washington. (AP Photo/Maryam Zohaib)
Whichever way the court rules, it will likely affect not only the Texas law, but also more than a dozen other age-verification laws for porn sites in states across the country.
In an interview with Fox News Digital after the hearing, Paxton said he felt confident the Supreme Court would rule in Texas' favor.
“Hearing the questions and seeing the judges’ comments, I feel very optimistic, and I believe we will win this,” he said. “I feel really good about that. I think most judges will get on the right side.”
He continued: “Even the other party that presented its arguments admitted that we have an interest in protecting minors.” “They just said that the way we were doing it was kind of an overload on adults, so they came up with other suggestions, and those suggestions don't actually work and maybe that's why they offered them, they didn't want age verification because it actually works, it affects on their bottom line.”
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The exterior of the Texas State Capitol is shown on September 5, 2023 in Austin, Texas. The impeachment trial of former Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton begins today in the Senate, with Gov. Dan Patrick presiding over the proceedings. Paxton faces several charges including bribery, making false statements and abuse of public trust. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
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In response to criticism that the law potentially infringes on freedom of expression, Paxton said: “Look, I'm a big advocate of freedom of expression. I see very few restrictions on freedom of expression. However, we have realized that we need to protect children in all kinds of different ways, “We don't allow them to sign contracts, we don't allow them to marry until they're 18, we don't allow them to serve alcohol, we don't allow them to have tobacco, we have protected children, it's been our entire history.”
“If you look anywhere in the developed world or anywhere (else), you will find that children are protected,” he added. “It's my job to enforce Texas law. In this case, I feel very comfortable protecting our children from having this put in front of them.”
