Free Speech and Online Age Verification: Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton

SCOTUS Intelligence

A Notebook LM review of the Supreme Court Decision in Free Speech Coalition, Inc., et al. v. Paxton, Attorney General of Texas. The core issue revolves around Texas H.B. 1181, a law requiring commercial websites with more than one-third of their content being "sexual material harmful to minors" to implement age verification for visitors. The Court's majority opinion, delivered by Justice Thomas, determines that this law is subject to intermediate scrutiny because it incidentally burdens adults' protected speech rights while primarily regulating speech unprotected for minors. The opinion affirms the Fifth Circuit's decision, concluding that the law survives intermediate scrutiny as it furthers the state's important interest in shielding children from sexual content using established and reasonable verification methods. A dissenting opinion by Justice Kagan, joined by Justices Sotomayor and Jackson, argues that strict scrutiny should apply because the law directly imposes content-based burdens on speech protected for adults, a standard they contend the Court has consistently applied in similar prior cases.