SCOTUS Supports Age-Gating for Porn

Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton

​They knew it when they saw it. In a 6-3 opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton that a Texas “age-gate” law restricting porn sites to adults is constitutional. Civil libertarians are sure to hotly debate whether there are principles here that will be applicable to any other First Amendment cases outside of the regulation of pornography.
 
The Court held that the Texas law, which requires adults to upload documentary proof of their age online before visiting a porn site, has only an “incidental effect on protected speech.” The Court found:
 
“The First Amendment leaves undisturbed States’ traditional power to prevent minors from accessing speech that is obscene from their perspective. That power includes the power to require proof of age before an individual can access such speech. It follows that no person – adult or child – has a First Amendment right to access such speech without first submitting proof of age.”
 
Justice Elena Kagan, dissenting, wrote:
 
“Speech that is obscene for minors is often not so for adults. For them, the category of obscene – and therefore unprotected speech – is narrower … So adults have a constitutional right to view the very same speech that a State may prohibit for children. And it is a fact of life – and also of law – that adults and children do not live in hermetically sealed boxes. In preventing children from gaining access to ‘obscene for children’ speech, States sometimes take measures impeding adults from viewing it too – even though, for adults, it is constitutionally protected expression.”
 
State legislators in future debates are sure to analyze and discuss the Court’s decision. Many will see a precedent that could require similar ID checks to visit websites that are not pornographic, but also inappropriate for children – such as downloading Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Are such adults-only age-gates truly “incidental,” or are they so cumbersome as to amount to a serious restriction on speech?
 
Others will say that Court’s ruling is actually a modest recognition of the right of the states to reasonably protect children from the internet’s torrent of full-motion, high resolution pornography.
 
Sex. Porn. Age. Free Speech. This one has all the vibrant and racy elements for a debate that itself promises to exercise the First Amendment to the fullest.

DONATE & HELP US PROTECT YOUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS