NetChoice: Court Wrong Not to Block Tenn. Age-Verification Law
A federal court erred when it declined to block a Tennessee age-verification law, NetChoice said Wednesday. The trade association asked the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the district court decision and issue a preliminary injunction against HB-1891, which requires that social media companies verify the age of account holders and gain parental consent from users younger than 18 before they can open accounts
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In June, the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee ruled that the trade association failed to demonstrate the harms that would come without an injunction. NetChoice immediately appealed the decision (see 2506200017).
Though the district court “held that NetChoice did not establish irreparable harm, without first considering the merits of NetChoice’s First Amendment challenge -- or the implications those irreparable harms have on ‘the balance of equities’ and ‘public interest’ … the record here contains ample evidence of real and ongoing irreparable harm,” the trade association said.
NetChoice said two of its members have stopped allowing minors in Tennessee to access their services, and all members must spend extra money to comply with the law, not to mention the “grave irreparable harms imposed by Tennessee’s restrictions on the dissemination of -- and access to -- speech,” it added. But the district court “incorrectly concluded” that none of these “constitute[d] irreparable harm.”