A Texas age verification law went into effect earlier this month leading to Pornhub pulling its service from the state. This week, the porn industry wants to take this law to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Free Speech Coalition (FSC), a trade association for the adult entertainment industry, filed to have the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit stay its ruling in favor of the Texas law to allow an appeal to go to the Supreme Court, as first reported by Law & Crime on Wednesday. Attorneys for the FSC told Law & Crime a petition to have the Supreme Court review the ruling will be filed soon.
Texas is one of almost a dozen states to pass an age verification law requiring porn sites to verify the age of their users to confirm they are of age. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled earlier in the month in favor of Texas’ law. Pornhub says that these laws are “ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous,” and it has since blocked Texans from accessing it and its sister sites just days after the ruling. Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Utah, and Virginia are the other states Pornhub has banned from visiting its site.
Last week, Texas stepped up its battle against porn peddlers and sued Xhamster and Chaturbate for not following the age verification law. Adult sites that continue to be available in the state that do not verify the age of users can face fines of “$10,000 per day, an additional $10,000 per day if the corporation illegally retains identifying information, and $250,000 if a child is exposed to pornographic content due to not properly verifying a user’s age.”
Florida is one of the latest states to pass an age verification law. However, Porhub has yet to ban horny Floridians from accessing its site.
