Free Speech Coalition v. Colmenero

Texas passed a law that will require every person — including every adult — to verify their age before they can access legal adult content online. The law also forces private websites to post “disclosures” that merely parrot Texas’ views on pornography. This law robs website users of anonymity, chills the willingness of privacy-conscious users to access legal material at all, and blocks some individuals from accessing online content fully protected by the First Amendment. It also compels speech from private websites. All of those violate the First Amendment. A federal court in Texas recognized that and issued an injunction that blocked the law from going into effect.

On September 26, 2023, a coalition of First Amendment groups, including FIRE, the ACLU, the Center for Democracy & Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the MEdia Coalition Foundation, and TechFreedom, filed an amicus curiae briefs with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, asking it to affirm the injunction and protect the First Amendment rights of Texans while online.