With the U.S. Supreme Court considering a similar Texas case, a federal judge Thursday put on hold a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a new Florida law requiring age verification for access to websites with adult content.
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker granted Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s request for a stay of the lawsuit. The decision means the Florida law will remain in effect in the coming months as the Supreme Court weighs the Texas case.
The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in the Texas case, which is known as Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, and Walker said in a five-page order that the outcome likely will affect key issues in the Florida lawsuit. The Free Speech Coalition, an adult-industry organization, is leading challenges to both laws, arguing, in part, that they violate the First Amendment.
The Free Speech Coalition and other plaintiffs opposed Moody’s request for a stay. But Walker wrote that it was apparent the Supreme Court’s ruling “is substantially likely to inform this court’s analysis of plaintiffs’ First Amendment claim, the level of scrutiny that should apply, and how that may impact the merits of plaintiffs’ claim.”
Walker also noted that the plaintiffs waited until Jan. 6 to seek a preliminary injunction to block the Florida law, which took effect Jan. 1.
“Ultimately, this court must balance the interests of judicial economy and the asserted impact that a stay on this proceeding will have on plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights,” Walker wrote.
“This court recognizes that plaintiffs’ speech is chilled every day the challenged law is in effect, but, given the substantial guidance the Supreme Court is likely to provide in its ruling in Paxton and the impact this guidance will have on this court’s analysis of plaintiffs’ primary constitutional claims, along with plaintiffs’ decision to allow the law to go into effect before seeking preliminary injunctive relief, this court concludes that a limited stay of these proceedings is both appropriate and necessary in this case.”
The order said the stay will remain in effect until July 3 or until the Supreme Court issues its ruling in the Texas case, whichever happens sooner. A Supreme Court decision is expected by early July.
Florida lawmakers passed the age-verification requirements during the 2024 legislative session, with supporters saying the law is designed to keep minors from viewing pornography online. The law was part of a broader bill (HB 3) that also seeks to prevent children under age 16 from opening social-media accounts on some platforms. That part of the bill has drawn a separate constitutional challenge.
The Free Speech Coalition and other plaintiffs filed the lawsuit Dec. 16 in federal court in Tallahassee. Pornhub drew national attention when it said it would block people in Florida from having access to the site because of the law — a step it has also taken in other states that passed similar laws.
The Florida lawsuit centers on part of the law that applies to any business that “knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material harmful to minors on a website or application, if the website or application contains a substantial portion of material harmful to minors.” It defines “substantial portion” as more than 33.3 percent of total material on a website or app.
In such situations, the law requires businesses to use methods to “verify that the age of a person attempting to access the material is 18 years of age or older and prevent access to the material by a person younger than 18 years of age.”
The lawsuit raises objections about how the law would apply to minors and adults, including saying it “demands that, as a condition of access to constitutionally protected content, an adult must provide a digital proof of identity to adult content websites that are doubtlessly capable of tracking specific searches and views of some of the most sensitive, personal, and private contents a human being might search for.”
The lawsuit also alleges that the law does not properly differentiate between older minors and younger children.
In addition to alleging violations of First Amendment rights, the lawsuit contends that the law violates due-process rights, the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause and what is known as the Supremacy Clause.
Moody, who was named Thursday by Gov. Ron DeSantis to succeed outgoing U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, filed the motion for a stay on Dec. 24. In opposing the request, the plaintiffs’ attorneys this month argued that the “state should not be allowed to make use of procedural tools to perpetuate a constitutional violation free of judicial oversight.”
