WASHINGTON (NEWSnet/AP) — U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to review an appeal from the adult entertainment industry seeking to upend a Texas law that requires pornographic websites to verify age of users.
Arguments in the legal fight between Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult entertainment industry, and Gov. Greg Abbott, who signed House Bill 181 into law, will take place in the fall.
In April, the court rejected an emergency appeal asking to delay age verification as the legal dispute continues.
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Similar age verification laws have been approved in other states: Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, Utah and Virginia.
The Texas law carries fines of up to $10,000 per violation that could be raised to as much as $250,000 per violation by a minor.
In 2023, a federal judge blocked the law’s age verification requirement and health warnings, finding likely violate the Constitution. In March, a divided panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the age verification ruling, although it upheld the health warnings ruling that adult sites can’t be forced to publish statements with which they disagree.
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