Oral Arguments in FSC’s Supreme Court Case Set for Jan. 15

WASHINGTON—Oral arguments in the Supreme Court case of Free Speech Coalition et al v. Paxton are scheduled for January 15, 2025, according to the docket.  The Free Speech Coalition and some of the world's largest operators of online adult content sued the state of Texas and Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton to block the enforcement of the state’s controversial age verification and labeling law, House Bill (HB) 1181. HB 1181 requires adult entertainment websites to verify users' ages who log on from Texas IP addresses.  “While Texas’ law may sound reasonable on its face, in practice, it is extraordinarily burdensome and invasive, effectively deterring adults from accessing legal content,” Free Speech Coalition executive director Alison Boden said in a Thursday statement. “To make matters worse, this law—and ones like it—fail at their stated goal of protecting children online, despite forcing adult content creators and consumers to operate under the threat of surveillance and censorship. We look forward to making our case before the Court.” Attorneys for the Plaintiffs are David D. Cole, Vera Eidelman, Brian Hauss, Ben Wizner, Brian Klosterboer, Edgar Saldivar, Adriana Piñon, Cloe Kempf, and Thomas Buser-Clancy of the American Civil Liberties Union; Derek L. Shaffer, Christopher G. Michel, Rachel G. Frank, Michael T. Zeller, Arian Koochesfahani, Delaney Gold-Diamond, Taylor E. Comerford, Daniel F. Mummolo, and Max Diamond of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP; and Jeffrey K. Sandman of Webb Daniel Friedlander, LLP. More on Free Speech Coalition, Inc., et al. v. Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas can be found here.