WASHINGTON (CN) — A group of porn producers asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday for emergency intervention to block Texas’ anti-porn law.
The Free Speech Coalition, an adult entertainment trade association and group of porn publishers, asked the justices to bar Texas from enforcing its age-verification requirement on website with adult content, claiming it violates the First Amendment.
“Profound irreparable harm flows from the act’s chilling of adults’ access to protected sexual expression, especially now that Texas is pursuing enforcement proceedings,” the producers say in their emergency application filed by Derek Shaffer, an attorney with Quinn Emanuel.
In 2023, the Lone Star State joined several other U.S. states in requiring age verification to access online adult content. Texas’ law would also force adult-content sites to include an advisory that reads: “Pornography is biologically addictive, is proven to harm human brain development, desensitizes brain reward circuits, increases conditioned responses and weakens brain function.”
Texas’ law aims at limiting minors’ access to online sexual content, but the porn producers claim it has resulted in burdens on adults’ access to constitutionally protected speech. Adults who wish to visit these websites must provide personal identification information.
A lower court concluded that the age-verification requirement chilled adults’ access to protected speech and was not tailored enough to meet the state’s compelling interest in protecting minors. Given the prevalence of online privacy breaches, the lower court found the age-verification requirement chilled adults’ access to protected speech.
Texas’ law, the lower court found, contained both too few and too many limits. Search engines and social media sites are exempt. The court said content-filtering software would be more effective at preventing minors from accessing this content while placing less of a burden on adults.
The lower court issued a preliminary injunction blocking Texas from enforcing the law. The Fifth Circuit initially paused the preliminary injunction for two months. After the briefing, the appeals court issued a stay pending appeal without explanation. The ruling allowed Texas to begin suing porn providers for violations of the law.
In March, the appeals court unanimously upheld the injunction on the law’s health warnings. The panel allowed the state to continue enforcing the age verification requirement.
One of the most visited websites in the world, Pornhub, suspended service to Texans after the law was enacted. Under the law, Pornhub and other adult-content sites would face a $250,000 fine if a minor accessed their content in violation of age-verification rules.
The porn producers asked the court to pause the Fifth Circuit’s ruling until the justices can review their certiorari petition. They argued it is important for the court to reject the Fifth Circuit’s repudiation of the court’s precedents.
“The issue is also exceptionally important, implicating the uniform and faithful application of this court’s precedents to the modern-day Internet as novel regulations traverse hallowed First Amendment ground,” the porn producers wrote.
The porn producers said Texas would hardly be harmed by a pause on its law since the search engine exemption renders the prohibition ineffective.
Committing to an expedited certiorari briefing schedule, the porn producers asked the justices to review and act on the petition before the summer recess.
If the court is not willing to offer a stay, the porn producers urged the justices to at least force Texas to adhere to an expedited briefing schedule for the certiorari petition.
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