Supreme Court Schedules Hearing in Challenge to Texas Porn Age Verification Law

The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Oct. 7, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The Supreme Court announced it scheduled oral arguments for Jan. 15, 2025, in a case challenging a Texas law mandating age verification for users of pornography websites.

The announcement in the case known as Free Speech Coalition Inc. v. Paxton was made on Oct. 31.

The petitioner, the Free Speech Coalition, describes itself as the “nonprofit non-partisan trade association for the adult industry.” Its mission is to pursue “a world in which body sovereignty is recognized, sexual expression is destigmatized, and sex work is decriminalized.”

The respondent, Ken Paxton, is the attorney general of Texas.

According to the coalition’s petition, Texas enacted the law, known as H.B. 1181, in June 2023.

In August 2023, a federal district court temporarily blocked the age verification requirement, as well as a requirement that the websites post health hazard warnings about pornography use.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit took up the case, upholding the law’s health hazard mandate but overturning the lower court’s injunction against the verification provision in March of this year.

The coalition argues that the Fifth Circuit erred when it held that the law needed only a “rational basis” instead of “heightened scrutiny” to pass constitutional muster. The two phrases refer to standards that courts use when reviewing limits on speech.

Sam Dorman contributed to this report.

This is a developing story that will be updated.