Supreme Court Decides Moral Values Are Not Illegal, Bars Porn from Children
PUBLIC ADVOCATE SUPREME COURT AMICUS BRIEF TO UPHOLD BAN ON PORN TO CHILDREN
"The Supreme Court ruled Friday June 28 that moral values can not be forbidden and abolished to respect the free speech demands of pornographers, leftists, agnostics and perverts. The Court affirmed an age restriction on access to porn in place in Texas to keep children from getting access to online porn, " says Eugene Delgaudio, president of Public Advocate.
"Public Advocate lawyers William Olson, Jeremiah Morgan, and Robert Olson filed amicus briefs throughout the process including at the Supreme Court level. Public Advocate attacked moderate Republicans who interfered with Attorney General Ken Paxton's defense of the ban on pornography with phoney impeachment articles that were dismissed by the Texas Senate. Only Public Advocate and Donald Trump stood by publicly with Paxton's leadership on ending porn being given to children. We mailed and emailed our supporters in Texas and knew this was critical and Paxton deserves full credit for fighting for this victory over evil child corrupters in both major parties, says Eugene Delgaudio.
PUBLIC ADVOCATE SUPREME COURT AMICUS BRIEF TO UPHOLD BAN ON PORN TO CHILDREN
"This case is about whether Texas can require adult websites to verify that its visitors are adults. The plaintiffs are adult websites and associations. Our amicus brief argued that the history of the First Amendment shows it was never intended to protect obscenity," Delgaudio said.
Texas' law requiring Pornhub and other adult websites to verify users' ages is constitutional and can remain in effect, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday.
The case stems from a 2023 law, HB 1181, that required websites to verify that a user is over the age of 18 if more than one-third of their content is considered harmful to minors. A group of adult entertainment websites sued, arguing this violated free speech and privacy protections.
Texas countered that the state had a right to protect children with what Solicitor General Aaron Nielson framed as "simple, safe and common" restrictions.
While the Supreme Court justices seemed divided on the free speech issues, a 6-3 majority of the Court ultimately sided with Texas, finding that requiring age verification "is within a State's authority to prevent children from accessing sexually explicit content."
The 2023 law "is an exercise of Texas's traditional power to prevent minors from accessing speech that is obscene from their perspective," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the majority's opinion. "To the extent that it burdens adults' rights to access such speech, it has 'only an incidental effect on protected speech,' making it subject to intermediate scrutiny."
..................Attorney General Ken Paxton celebrated the ruling Friday, calling it a "major victory for children, parents and the ability of states to protect minors from the damaging effects of online pornography."
PHOTO CREDIT: Eugene Delgaudio, president of Public Advocate at the Supreme Court supporting AMY CONEY BARRETT for the Court