The Supreme Court refused on Tuesday to block a Texas law that seeks to limit minors’ access to pornography on the internet by requiring age verification measures like the submission of government-issued IDs.
As is the court’s custom in rulings on emergency applications, its brief order gave no reasons. There were no noted dissents. A petition seeking review of an appeals court’s ruling upholding the law remains pending.
Looks like Pornhub will have to wait a little longer to return to Texas. Of course, if they want to operate for adults here, as they claim, all they have to do is screen users to make sure they're adults.
This isn't a decision on the merits, of course, but it does reflect an assessment that the law isn't actually doing constitutional harm to the plaintiffs. If that were the case, then the court would have issued a stay while they debated whether the harm was narrowly tailored to a legitimate state interest. I'd say that the plaintiffs have reason to worry.
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