LOS ANGELES — Free Speech Coalition has filed a motion for preliminary injunction of Utah's age-verification law, asking the district judge to block its enforcement pending resolution of the case.
The motion lays out a long history of legal precedent for striking down attempts to restrict access to sex-related content on the internet, and argues that legislators were not only aware of the constitutional issues raised by the law, but pushed forward with the intent of chilling speech.
“Despite this long legacy of constitutional invalidity, the Utah Legislature has used not just the same tired justifications, but even the same statutory terms and definitions that led to invalidation of those past efforts,” the motion states. “In doing so, it has placed Plaintiffs in the untenable position of abiding by the Act’s terms and enduring the constitutional infringement, or violating the Act and risking lawsuits.”
The motion concludes by arguing that stifling adult speech “is a feature of this legislation, not a bug.”
The parties are represented by Jeffrey Sandman of Webb Daniel Friedlander LLP, D. Gill Sperlein of the Law Office of D. Gill Sperlein, and Jerome Mooney of Weston, Garrou & Mooney Law Firm.
For more information, visit FreeSpeechCoalition.com.