It's not every day that the country's highest court talks about the constitution regarding pornography, but such cases often result in landmark rulings. If Wednesday's Supreme Court debate over age verification laws for websites like Pornhub is consigned to the history books, future legal scholars will be faced with some bizarre questions from the justices.
Scotus heard about two hours of oral argument Wednesday about Free Speech Alliance v. Paxtonin which the adult industry trade association challenged a Texas law that requires porn sites to verify the age of users using government ID cards or similar digital documents to prevent minors under 18 from accessing them Hosted Materials. Such legislation is increasingly common, with Pornhub, the world's leading adult website, now blocking access in 17 states rather than comply with age verification requirements. Critics say the laws pose significant privacy risks and infringe on First Amendment rights while creating support for a broader crackdown on adult content and censorship of resources related to abortion, gender-affirming care, safe sex and LGBTQ identities An excuse.
That was the gist of comments from challenger FSC attorney Derek Shaffer, who said the Texas law had a chilling effect and completely sidestepped more restrictive measures including parental-controlled content filters. Small measures. However, the court's conservative justices sounded unconvinced and were thought likely to uphold the law. Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a mother of seven, was an early opponent of the filter alternative, saying: "I can say from personal experience that the content for all these different devices Filtration is hard to keep up with.”
Things took a turn for the worse when Judge Neil Gorsuch asked Schaefer to specify exactly how much of his client's content (Aylo, formerly MindGeek, Pornhub's parent company, is a co-plaintiff) was "obscene to a minor." Got to be even more embarrassed. Shaffer said it's difficult to quantify this, but acknowledged it could be more than 70%. (Last November, after Donald Trump won the election, at a dinner hosted by the conservative legal group the Federalist Society, Gorsuch made a poignant reference to an OnlyFans adult star who owns a web A red pet squirrel named Peanut was euthanized ahead of Election Day, a move by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation that sparked outrage, mostly in the MAGA world).
Justice Samuel Alito then loudly questioned whether Pornhub was "like the old one" playboy Magazine," asked, "Do you have any articles on modern Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr.? ” (The precedent discussed in this case, Ginsburg v. State of New Yorkinvolved the sale of "girly magazines" to 16-year-olds in the late 1960s. ) Shaffer said the site doesn't post such material, but Pornhub does offer "sexual health posts about women recovering from hysterectomies and how they can enjoy sex." Alito then wondered "Second "Popular Porn Sites," Alito expressed irritation when Schafer said he couldn't provide those rankings.
Later in the argument, Gorsuch suggested that age verification to obtain pornography might be no different than selling guns or requiring ID to vote, although Schaeffer disagreed that those were applicable comparisons. Justice Brett Kavanaugh urged Schaeffer to acknowledge that "children's massive exposure to pornography creates both short- and long-term social problems," and Schaeffer said there needed to be a broader discussion about the impact of the Internet on children. young people.
Chief Deputy Attorney General Brian Fletcher argued that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should not allow the Texas law to take effect after a lower court blocked it, before Judge Clarence Thomas Speaking to Chief Deputy Attorney General Brian Fletcher, the old pornography came up again. . He seemed to suggest that courts must now consider the current state of technology, saying: "We are in a completely different world and playboy It's about the curved lines on cable television. ” (This is clearly a reference to the brand’s pay-TV channel, rather than the original magazine, which was intended to compete for non-subscribers, although the signal wasn’t always effectively blocked.)
Alito seemed particularly interested in mixing visual erotica with literary content, as was the case with adult magazines founded in the 20th century. At one point, he asked attorney Aaron Nelson, representing the state of Texas, "If a particular website has some hardcore pornography that is obscene to minors, then it has, you know, , a video of someone reading lady chatterley's lover Or something like that, can the latter be quarantined? ” (D.H. Lawrence’s erotic novels were themselves the subject of a major obscenity trial.) Nelson said that was possible, though he protested that “there was no chance that a Texas court would hear any of this.” Raising privacy concerns, Judge Sonia Sotamayor told Nielsen, "My name, when I visit a website, my browsing history, everything is automatically Transfer to someone else. "I don't understand technology," Nelson replied. "Well, that's the point," Sotamayor replied. "
While the court's conservative majority does appear poised to side with Texas (and other red states that have enacted age verification laws to restrict pornography and online content that lawmakers may deem "obscene"), it might Following Fletcher's recommendation, the case was sent back to the lower court for further analysis. However, it would be surprising if it repealed the Texas law entirely. A ruling is expected this summer.
Similar legislation has been proposed in New Jersey, New Mexico, Wyoming, Ohio and Missouri, according to the FSC's Age Verification Bill Tracker. This week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit allowed Tennessee's version of the law to take effect; a district court judge had previously blocked the bill. As these pornographic bills sweep the country and trigger one legal challenge after another, it may not be long before the Supreme Court finds itself having to weigh in on the issue again and try to understand the contemporary landscape of adult content.