Supreme Court Justices on Wednesday were divided over a challenge to a Texas law that requires users to undergo an invasive age verification process before accessing pornography sites, specifically on the standard of scrutiny that should be applied, reports SCOTUSblog.
In the case, Paxton v. Free Speech Coalition, the ACLU and lawyer Quinn Emanuel argue that adults have a First Amendment right to access information online, including sexual content, and cannot burden adult access to sexual speech in an effort to protect kids.
“Efforts to childproof the internet not only hurt everyone’s ability to access information but often give the government far too much leeway to go after speech it doesn’t like — all while failing to actually protect children,” said Vera Eidelman, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “Pornography is historically the canary in the coal mine when it comes to censorship. Allowing the government to restrict access to sexual content will inevitably lead to more censorship and a more restricted internet for everyone.”
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