Supreme Court upholds Texas age verification for porn sites 6-3

The Texas law applies to any website where more than one-third (33%) of content is “materially harmful to minors.”

Under the law, neither adult websites nor third-party verification companies may retain government-issued ID information after age verification is complete.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals originally upheld the law under a “rational basis” test rather than applying “strict scrutiny” to the speech restriction.

Texas’s statute allows “any commercially reasonable method” for age verification using public or private transactional data as an alternative to government ID upload.

The decision departs from roughly 40 years of precedent that had struck down state or federal ID-verification requirements for access to adult content.

Digital-rights advocates warn of a chilling effect: some adults may avoid constitutionally protected content rather than surrender anonymity and privacy.

Critics—including the Electronic Frontier Foundation—note that people without proper ID, those seeking anonymous access for safety, and other vulnerable groups could be blocked by these requirements.