Supreme Court Rules That Age Verification Laws for Adult Websites Are Constitutional

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday that states with laws requiring age verification for porn sites is constitutional. The case, known as Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton (Ken Paxton is the Attorney General of Texas), was decided 6-3 with the court’s three liberal justices dissenting.

The Texas law, which requires age verification using a credit card or a government-issued ID document, went into effect in 2023 and Pornhub started blocking access to the site in the Lone Star State in protest. Justice Clarence Thomas, a far-right extremist, wrote the opinion of the court, noting that “not all speech is protected” under the First Amendment.

“History, tradition, and precedent recognize that States have two distinct powers to address obscenity: They may proscribe outright speech that is obscene to the public at large, and they may prevent children from accessing speech that is obscene to children,” Thomas wrote in his opinion.

“In addition to their general interest in protecting the public at large, States have a specific interest in protecting children from sexually explicit speech,” Thomas wrote.

During oral arguments, Justice Thomas suggested changes in technology had made age verification laws necessary, while making a confusing argument. “We’re in an entirely different world,” Thomas said. “Playboy was about squiggly lines on cable TV.”

The justice may be speaking from long-term experience. Thomas was confirmed as a justice in 1991 after contentious hearings about his sexual harassment of Anita Hill. A girlfriend of Thomas would later claim Thomas was “obsessed with porn,” according to NPR and talked about it frequently.

The plaintiff in the case against the Texas law, Free Speech Coalition, is a group formed by porn companies like Pornhub to fight the age verification requirements, which they argue are intrusive and unnecessary. The porn industry would like age verification to be done by Big Tech companies at the device level rather than forcing individual sites to handle so much private information, which they argue introduces unnecessary risk.

The 19 states that currently have age verification laws for accessing porn:

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Florida
• Georgia
• Idaho
• Indiana
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Montana
• Nebraska
• North Carolina
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Virginia

Sites like Pornhub aren’t just fighting age verification laws in the U.S., as countries like France have also tried to institute similar measures. Pornhub’s parent company Aylo didn’t immediately respond to questions emailed Friday but sent a statement about France’s law last week arguing its position.

“To make the internet safer for everyone, every phone, tablet or computer should start as a kid-safe device. Only verified adults should be allowed to unlock access to age-inappropriate content. This is the core premise of device-based age verification, which we believe is the safest and most secure option. The technology to accomplish this exists today,” a spokesperson for Aylo wrote.

“What is required is the political and social will to make it happen on a global level,” the statement continued. “We are determined to be part of this solution and want to collaborate with government, civil society and tech partners to arrive at an effective device-based age verification solution. While we continue to comply with regulations in our jurisdiction of establishment, we believe a harmonized approach across borders would better serve the shared goal of protecting minors.”

The age verification law was one of six rulings issued Friday. A case about President Donald Trump’s executive order trying to abolish birthright citizenship wasn’t decided on the merits, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled nationwide injunctions from circuit courts were no longer allowed. That means that a month from now Trump’s EO could theoretically be implemented, though it’s not clear yet how the government plans to do that.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.