U.S. Supreme Court declines request to block Texas’ app age verification law
Kenneth Cheung via Getty Images
A federal appeals court had allowed Texas to require app stores to verify users’ ages and seek parental consent before a minor can download apps while litigation continues.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
Texas can continue enforcing a law requiring app marketplace operators like Google and Apple to verify all users’ ages after the U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to intervene.
Senate Bill 2420, which was supposed to take effect Jan. 1, establishes age verification requirements and mandates parental consent before a person under age 18 is allowed to download apps or make in-app purchases. The law also requires app developers to say whether their apps are appropriate for people in four categories: children under 13, teens age 13-15, older teens age 16-17, or adults 18 and older.
The law was initially blocked in December when a federal judge in Austin determined restrictions in SB 2420 likely violated the First Amendment.
Texas appealed the temporary injunction, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in late May allowed Texas to enforce the law until its judges issue a ruling on the law’s constitutionality.
A trade association asked the Supreme Court to block the Texas law while the 5th Circuit weighed the state’s appeal. The high court declined Monday without comment.
Computer & Communications Industry Association President Matt Schruers on Monday said the tech trade group looks forward to making its case at an expedited hearing before the 5th Circuit in early August.
“People should not have to turn over personal data to access the internet any more than they should show government identification to enter a bookstore,” Schruers said in a statement.
The law’s supporters say it is needed to protect children as they navigate social media and online spaces, while critics say it would violate free speech rights. Louisiana and Utah have passed similar laws that have not yet gone into effect.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, an advocacy group, filed separate lawsuits in October challenging the law, both arguing it violates the First Amendment.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman sided with the plaintiffs in December, finding the law likely violates the First Amendment and issuing the temporary injunction blocking the law while the full case plays out in the district court.
“The Act is akin to a law that would require every bookstore to verify the age of every customer at the door and, for minors, require parental consent before the child or teen could enter and again when they try to purchase a book,” Pitman wrote in a 20-page ruling at the time.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office appealed the temporary injunction in late December.
Paxton urged the appeals court to allow enforcement of the law, arguing the state has the right to regulate transactions between minors and app marketplaces that take place in the state, according to court filings.
In a June statement, Paxton wrote that the age verification law was necessary to protect children online.
“Texas has not only the right, but the duty, to protect children from the harms of our modern digital space,” Paxton wrote. “Parents deserve to know what their children are downloading and to have the ability to stop them from accessing harmful or inappropriate content.”
The trade and advocacy groups urged the court to uphold Pitman’s injunction, arguing SB 2420 “restricts an enormous amount of online speech” in violation of the First Amendment.
Students Engaged in Advancing Texas in a statement at the time noted its members use marketplaces to access apps used to communicate and learn, and the organization itself uses apps to engage with its members and the public.
“Students have just as much a right to access information as adults, and this law denies them that access,” Cameron Samuels, co-founder and executive director of SEAT, wrote in a statement.
Disclosure: Apple and Google have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
