Pornography is among the subjects the Supreme Court will consider in the new term starting next month — specifically, whether a Texas law’s age verification requirement for accessing online sexual content violates the First Amendment. The 2023 law imposes requirements on any commercial website where more than one-third of its content is “sexual material harmful to minors.
In ruling that the First Amendment wasn’t violated, the panel majority said the restriction “is rationally related to the government’s legitimate interest in preventing minors’ access to pornography.” But the question presented to the Supreme Court is whether the 5th Circuit asked the right question in arriving at that answer.