Source: theepochtimes.com 9/3/23
A federal judge in Texas has blocked a state law seeking to impose age requirements on adult websites, claiming the bill violates the First Amendment and is a threat to privacy.
Texas’ HB 1181 (pdf) requires adult sites to verify the age of visitors to ensure they are 18 years of age or older. It was signed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott on June 12 and was set to come into effect on Sept. 1.
On Aug. 4, a lawsuit (pdf) was filed against the legislation, arguing that the law violated the First Amendment. Plaintiffs were led by the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) an advocacy group for workers and businesses in the adult industry. Other plaintiffs included PornHub’s parent company Aylo (formerly MindGeek), along with an anonymous porn actress and operators of adult content sites based from Florida to the Czech Republic.
In an Aug. 31 ruling (pdf) on the case, the court sided with the FSC, finding that HB 1181 violated the First Amendment. It prohibited Texas Interim Attorney General Angela Colmenero from “enforcing any provision” of the bill.
“The Court finds that H.B. 1181 is unconstitutional on its face,” senior U.S. district judge David A. Ezra of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas wrote in the ruling.
“The statute is not narrowly tailored and chills the speech of Plaintiffs and adults who wish to access sexual materials … And the law is not narrowly tailored because it substantially regulates protected speech, is severely underinclusive, and uses overly restrictive enforcement methods.”
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Damn straight! I know a lot about First Amendment and its jurisprudence because of the legal work I had to do while I was on parole in order to challenge one of my parole conditions (I won). It is clear to me that this law, and the Arkansas law that was overturned either the same day or the next, were blatantly unconstitutional. That somewhat similar stupid law that the California legislature passed and Governor Newsom spinelessly signed into law will almost certainly face a similar fate. “Save the Children” laws that put any burden whatsoever on the exercise of free speech are doomed to failure.
There is no end to the limits on adult behavior that will be legislated in order to protect the children from neglectful parents.
Ask Juul.
I completely disagree with this decision. You can’t buy cigarettes or booze without an ID. This should be no different.
I assumed all states have laws restricting children accessing adult sites. If they don’t, it seems inconsistent with state laws that charge felonies for showing a minor adult material. One might say allowing a minor to gain access to the material, and showing them the material are two different things. But I don’t think there’s a big stark difference. If I left my Hustler magazine on the floor in my living room, knowing that my neighbor’s 7 year old child would pick it up thumb thru it, when they came over for a card game one night, I would likely be charged with exposing a child to obscene material. These internet porn sites are really doing the same thing by dropping their safeguards when they know children would try and access their sites.