NetChoice Uses Ark. Case to Support Preliminary Injunction Against Age Verification Law
NetChoice urged the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee Tuesday to follow the recent decision in NetChoice, LLC v. Griffin and grant a preliminary injunction against a law requiring age verification before accessing social media accounts (see 2504010044).
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"Griffin’s final summary judgment decision lends support to multiple NetChoice arguments in this case," NetChoice said in a notice of supplemental authority. Namely, the findings that "age-verification and parental-consent requirements burden the exercise of First Amendment," the regulation is content-based and “imposition of an age-verification requirement for account creation is maximally burdensome,” apply to NetChoice v. Skrmetti as well.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti (R), however, had previously used the decision in CCIA & NetChoice v. Uthmeier to urge the court to deny the preliminary injunction on March 14 (see 25031700061). NetChoice responded on March 18 that Uthmeier had no bearing (see 2503180053).
Case 24-01191 started in October when NetChoice sued the attorney general over privacy and First Amendment concerns about HB-1891, legislation requiring social media companies to verify the age of account holders and gain parental consent before users younger than 18 opened accounts (see 2501170070).