NASHVILLE, Tenn. — An appeals court in Tennessee has decided that the state may start enforcing a law aimed at requiring pornographic websites to check the ages of their visitors. This development comes as the First Amendment debate surrounding similar laws rises to the U.S. Supreme Court for oral arguments this week regarding a Texas law.
On Monday, a panel of three judges from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the Tennessee law can be implemented while an ongoing legal challenge is underway. Previously, a district court judge had put a temporary hold on the law, citing concerns over free speech rights for adults and arguing that the legislation would not effectively prevent minors from accessing inappropriate content.
The Free Speech Coalition, a group representing the adult entertainment industry, has filed a lawsuit challenging Tennessee’s law as well as similar laws across several other states, including Texas. According to the coalition, around 19 states have enacted laws requiring age verification for adult sites.
In its ruling, the 6th Circuit panel stated that the lower court did not adequately demonstrate that any potentially unconstitutional features of Tennessee’s law were more significant than its constitutional intentions. The judges explained that the law’s purpose is to “protect children from the devastating effects of easy access to on-demand pornography.”
The panel also noted that other circuit courts have overturned lower court rulings that had blocked similar age verification laws in states like Texas and Indiana. The Supreme Court had also previously opted not to halt the Texas law in April as challenges from the Free Speech Coalition continued, with oral arguments scheduled for Wednesday.
The ruling further stated, “We see no reason to keep Tennessee’s law on ice while Texas and Indiana may enforce theirs (against at least one of the same Plaintiffs), especially when the Supreme Court will soon offer guidance on the standard of review we should apply.”
In response to the decision, the adult site Pornhub has started to block access from Tennessee. The website had already restricted access in 16 other states due to similar verification laws, which it has described as “ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous.” The parent company, Aylo, advocates for age verification technologies that are implemented directly on individual devices.
Under Tennessee’s law, pornographic websites will be compelled to verify that users are at least 18 years old. Violators could face felony charges and civil liability. The law suggests that sites could confirm age by using methods such as matching a photo to an ID or utilizing specific “public or private transactional data.” Moreover, website operators would be prohibited from retaining any personally identifiable information and would need to handle data in an anonymized manner.
The age verification requirement comes into play if one-third of the content on a website is deemed harmful to minors by state standards.
The Free Speech Coalition asserts that the legislation is ineffective and unconstitutional, claiming it may force users to share sensitive personal information.
Additionally, on Monday, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach initiated a lawsuit against Seattle-based SARJ LLC, alleging violations of Kansas’ law by running 13 pornographic websites without age verification technology to ensure that visitors are 18 or older. The consumer protection lawsuit seeks damages that could reach millions, with claims up to $10,000 for each instance someone in Kansas accessed the sites, as well as for each day the company was non-compliant.
U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman, who had previously blocked the Tennessee law, argued that the age verification requirements would not effectively stop minors from accessing adult content through VPNs, which can hide a user’s location. She also mentioned that the law would not prevent minors from accessing pornographic materials through less regulated areas of the internet or social media, which would likely be shielded by the one-third content threshold.
Judge Lipman highlighted the law’s potentially broad impact, pointing out that it could influence other entities like educational platforms centered on sexual wellness. Importantly, Tennessee’s definition of what constitutes “content harmful to minors” even encompasses text content.
Lipman was appointed by former President Barack Obama, while the other judges on the 6th Circuit were appointed by former Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti expressed support for the ruling, noting that the age verification law received unanimous approval from the Republican-controlled Legislature. “As the Court of Appeals noted, this law seeks to stem the flow of toxic content to kids and keep adult websites adults-only,” Skrmetti stated in an email remark.
Similar laws in Florida and South Carolina took effect on January 1, with another age verification law slated to begin in Georgia in July.
