AUSTIN — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Wednesday filed a partial motion to dismiss the lawsuit by Free Speech Coalition (FSC) and other plaintiffs against the state’s controversial age verification law, which mandates that adult websites post anti-porn propaganda.
As XBIZ reported, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals heard arguments last month regarding the injunction against enforcement of the law, HB 1181, obtained Aug. 31 by the plaintiffs.
The law was passed by the Texas legislature with bipartisan support in May and was scheduled to go into effect Sept. 1.
The case originally was filed as “Free Speech Coalition v. Colmenero,” naming as defendant the interim attorney general of Texas, Angela Colmenero. Colmenero was the second interim AG appointed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to serve in place of Paxton, who was suspended in May after being impeached, with bipartisan support, by the Republican-controlled state House.
Paxton was acquitted on Sept. 26 and a month later, Judge David Alan Ezra granted the replacement of his name as defendant in the case, which is henceforth to be known as “Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton.”
In his motion for dismissal, Paxton argued that several of the defendants are “foreign website plaintiffs” that “do not operate in the United States for all purposes relevant to this litigation.”
Paxton also argued that the allegedly foreign plaintiffs are not subject to Section 230 liability protections.
FSC Director of Public Affairs Mike Stabile told XBIZ that Texas's motion to dismiss “is a fairly routine filing, and one we expect will be taken as such by the court.”
“In the face of clear and overwhelming unconstitutionality of the law, the state is reduced to quibbling over details, in hopes of reducing its own legal burden,” Stabile added. “Regardless of this motion, the suit against Texas will proceed.”
In late October, William J. Olson — an extreme-right Virginia attorney with Trump links, acting on behalf of the Council on Pornography Reform, an obscure group led by Colorado-based religious conservative activist and former child actor Rick Schroder — filed a lengthy brief in a federal appeals court in Texas, supporting HB 1181.
“Attorney General Paxton is fighting pornography in Texas because of its demonstrated harm on children,” a press release from Paxton’s office boasted in 2017.