Supreme Court Allows, for Now, Texas Law Restricting Access to Porn

The Supreme Court refused on Tuesday to block a Texas law that seeks to limit minors’ access to pornography on the internet by requiring age verification measures like the submission of government-issued IDs.

As is the court’s custom in rulings on emergency applications, its brief order gave no reasons. There were no noted dissents. A petition seeking review of an appeals court’s ruling upholding the law remains pending.

A trade group, companies that produce sexual materials and a performer challenged the law, saying that it violates the First Amendment right of adults.

The law does not allow companies to retain information their users submit. But the challengers said adults would be wary of supplying personal information for fear of identity theft, tracking and extortion.

Judge David Alan Ezra, of the Federal District Court in Austin, blocked the law, saying it would have a chilling effect on speech protected by the First Amendment.

“By verifying information through government identification, the law will allow the government to peer into the most intimate and personal aspects of people’s lives,” wrote Judge Ezra, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan.