Conservative Judge Blocks Republican Bill to Stop Kids From Watching Porn

A conservative judge, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, rejected a Republican-led bill to ban children in Texas from watching porn.

U.S. District Judge David Ezra struck down Texas House Bill 1181, which required age verification and health warnings for pornographic websites, and blocked the state attorney general from enforcing the law on Thursday.

The law, signed by Governor Greg Abbott in June, was to take effect beginning Friday. It carried a fine of up to $10,000 per violation that could be raised by up to $250,000 per violation by a minor.

Ezra agreed with the Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult entertainment industry, ruling that the law violates the right to free speech and that the language is too broad and vague. Attorney General Ken Paxton's office immediately filed a notice of appeal.

Texas is not the only state that's sought to implement an age verification law for porn. Louisiana was the first state to require adult websites to verify the age of users. A lawsuit against the law in the state is pending. Mississippi, Virginia and Utah also have laws in effect, while Arkansas' law, which requires parental consent for the creation of new social media accounts by minors, was struck down by a federal judge on Thursday.

Newsweek reached out to the Texas GOP via email for comment.

In his ruling, Ezra said that the Texas law was "unconstitutional on its face," writing that it "chills the speech of Plaintiffs and adults who wish to access sexual materials" and "substantially regulates protected speech, is severely underinclusive, and uses overly restrictive enforcement methods."

He also said that forcing adult websites to verify the ages of users could create privacy concerns because the data accessed by those sites could also be logged and tracked by the government.

"By verifying information through government identification, the law will allow the government to peer into the most intimate and personal aspects of people's lives," Ezra said.

Although the judge recognized that the state had a legitimate interest to protect children from online material, he noted that there were other existing measures that are "more effective and less restrictive," like blocking and filtering software.

Ezra also critiqued the health warnings that would have been required, among which include one that says: "Pornography increases the demand for prostitution, child exploitation, and child pornography."

"The disclosures state scientific findings as a matter of fact, when in reality, they range from heavily contested to unsupported by the evidence," the judge found.

Conservative legal scholar Jonathan Turley said pornography has long been an area that has raised free speech issues, even though advocates may try to avoid the subject matter.

"Governments often target the least popular forms of speech," he wrote in a Friday blog post. "While these sites appear very popular, few want to be publicly seen as supporting sites widely seen as sinful or sexist."