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(LifeSiteNews) — The U.S. Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it has rejected an emergency appeal on behalf of the porn industry to block a Texas law that requires visitors of X-rated websites to verify they are at least 18 years old.
“The application for stay presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied,” the one-sentence decision stated. No justice dissented from the announcement, nor did it have a name attached to it.
Age-verification laws have grown in popularity among Republican lawmakers in recent years. Last week, Georgia became the 15th state in America to enact such legislation, which requires users to upload state-approved identification to the porn sites they frequent. 7 states have passed similar laws this year alone.
LifeSiteNews has reported on age verification measures approved in Florida, Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas. All of them have had the positive effect of drastically reducing or eliminating outright the reach of some porn sites. Pornhub shut down completely in Texas as a result of House Bill (HB) 1181.
Terry Schilling of the American Principles Project believes such bills are a “political no-brainer.” In a press release issued last week, he said that “children are first exposed to online pornography on average at age 12. No sane person believes this is healthy or acceptable.”
Texas’ HB 1181 was signed into law by GOP Governor Greg Abbott in 2023. In response, Free Speech Coalition, a trade association representing the porn industry, filed a lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Davis Alan Ezra issued a preliminary injunction in their favor one day before HB 1181 was to go into effect last September. Ezra ruled that the bill “substantially regulates protected speech.” However, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay that allowed the law to go into effect.
Last month on April 12, lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and Quinn, Emanuel, Urquhart & Sullivan filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court on behalf of the Free Speech Coalition. Tuesday’s decision rejecting their appeal ended their challenge.
Reuters reports that Coalition spokesperson Mike Stabile has noted that the Court can still rule in the group’s favor, as it has yet to decide if it will hear its full appeal of HB 1181. If it does grant certiorari, the Court will conduct oral arguments. Among other things, the Texas law fines websites $10,000 per violation.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has pushed back against the Coalition’s claims. In his filing, he said that the law “simply requires the pornography industry that makes billions of dollars from peddling smut to take commercially reasonable steps to ensure that those who access the material are adults.” The measures are needed, he said, because the “unprecedented explosion of access to hardcore pornography by kids” with smartphones is “creating a public health crisis.”
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