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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is fighting to uphold a Texas law that he says prevents the porn industry from targeting children with harmful content.
Approved in 2023 and signed into law Texas Governor Greg Abbottthe law requires pornographic sites to verify the age of users using official documentation, such as a driver’s license or government-issued ID. Under the law, failure to implement this age verification results in fines.
Meanwhile, a collection of porn sites called the Free Speech Coalition argues that the Texas law limits their First Amendment rights and places an undue burden on Texas adults to access their content.
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Dozens of plaintiffs are accusing Pornhub and its parent company, MindGeek, of monetizing sexual abuse. (Adrien Fillon/NurPhoto)
Pornhub, the most popular adult content website in the country, made it this far disable access to your website for all users in Texas after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law was upheld.
The two parties finally met face to face this Wednesday to present their case to the Supreme Court.
For its part, the nation’s highest court appeared united in accepting Paxton’s argument that states have a vested interest in limiting children’s access to pornographic content. However, some judges appeared to have concerns about whether the Texas law’s prohibitions were too broad and could affect other areas of free expression.
The question before the court now is whether the Texas law should be subject to “rational basis” or “strict scrutiny” review, the latter of which would require Texas to meet the strictest standards to meet the requirement of age verification.
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The Supreme Court of the United States is seen on November 15, 2023 in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Either way, the court rules will likely affect not only the Texas law, but more than a dozen porn site age-verification laws in states across the country.
In an interview with Fox News Digital after the hearing, Paxton said he is confident the Supreme Court will rule in Texas’ favor.
“Hearing the questions and seeing the judges’ comments makes me feel very optimistic, I think we’re going to win this,” he said. “I feel really good about it. I think most of the judges will be on the right side.”
“Even the other party that argued admitted that we have an interest in protecting minors,” he continued. “They said the way we were doing this was kind of overloading for adults and so they offered other suggestions, those suggestions don’t actually work and that’s probably why they offered them, they don’t want to verify the age. because it really works and affects your results.”
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The exterior of the Texas State Capitol is seen on September 5, 2023 in Austin, Texas. The Senate impeachment trial of former Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton begins today with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick presiding over the proceedings. Paxton faces multiple allegations, including bribery, making false statements and abuse of public trust. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
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In response to criticism that the law could violate free speech, Paxton said, “Look, I’m a big supporter of free speech. I see very few limitations on free speech. However, we’ve recognized that we have to protect children in all kinds of different ways we don’t let them sign contracts, we don’t let them marry until they’re 18, we don’t let them use alcohol, we don’t let them use tobacco, we have protected children, it’s been (in long) our whole history”.
“If you look anywhere in the developed world or anywhere (else), children are protected,” he added. “It’s my job to enforce the law in Texas. In this case, I feel very comfortable protecting our children from having this put in front of them.”
