United States of America: Supreme Court issued opinion in lawsuit challenging Bill 1181 restricting access to sexual material harmful to minors on an Internet Website (Free Speech Coalition v Texas) (No. 23–1122)

On 27 June 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the constitutionality of Texas’s House Bill 1181 relating to restricting access to sexual material harmful to minors on an Internet website. The Bill requires online publishers of sexually explicit content to verify users’ ages through reasonable age verification methods. The ruling applies to digital publishers hosting adult content. It affirmed that such laws impose only an incidental burden on adult access to protected speech, making them subject to intermediate rather than strict scrutiny under the First Amendment. The Court held that the law advances the important governmental interest of protecting minors and is adequately tailored to that goal.