INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, along with Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and officials from 22 other states, on Friday filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court in support of Texas’ controversial age verification law.
The law, HB 1181, is being challenged by a group led by the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) in the case Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for Jan. 15.
Indiana is one of many states that have enacted laws requiring adult sites to verify the ages of users. In March, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed Senate Bill 17, which took effect in August. Critics of the bills argue that they are ineffective in preventing minors from viewing adult content and unconstitutional in that they impinge on the rights of adults to access protected speech. Pornhub has repeatedly blocked access in states with AV laws, stating that this is the only way it can comply with such laws.
The brief argues that “states have undisputed power to restrict minors’ access to obscene content, including pornography,” and that age verification laws are merely a “modest regulation of the multi-billion-dollar pornography industry, which inflicts harm on children along every dimension—psychological, social, emotional, neurobiological, and sexual.”
Industry attorney Corey Silverstein told XBIZ that he “respectfully disagrees” with the AGs’ argument.
“It is disappointing that these elected officials seem to have overlooked foundational constitutional principles,” he said, adding that he hopes local lawmakers will await the Supreme Court’s decision in FSC v. Paxton before enacting similar legislation.
In January 2023, Louisiana became the first state to enact a law requiring age verification by porn websites. Utah, Virginia, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas quickly followed. This year saw Montana, North Carolina, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Alabama, and Oklahoma join the list, with Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina scheduled to do so next year.