20 States Support Dropping Injunction Against Texas' Age-Verification Law
Florida and 18 other state enforcers, plus the Arizona state legislature, supported Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) in asking a federal appeals court to remove a preliminary injunction on his state's age-verification law.
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Paxton appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on April 28 (see 2504290043) after the U.S. District Court for Western Texas granted a preliminary injunction for HB-18 sought by the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and NetChoice.
“Rather than face the public scrutiny that comes with litigation and the federal rules’ demanding party-discovery requirements, social-media companies continue to hide behind trade associations NetChoice and CCIA,” said the states in a joint amicus brief Monday. “The First Amendment is not a shield for addicting children and destroying their mental health in the name of corporate bottom lines. Nor is associational standing a cloak that allows platforms to operate in the shadows, wielding the First Amendment to escape regulation that the public broadly supports without participating in federal courts’ adversarial process.”
In their July 2025 lawsuit, the tech industry groups alleged that the Texas age-verification bill violates the First Amendment by attempting to regulate online speech and access to that speech and information. Also, they said requiring collection of personal information raises privacy risks.