An Austin-based federal judge ruled Friday that some aspects of a Texas law limiting minors’ access to digital platforms likely violate the First Amendment, a decision Attorney General Ken Paxton immediately appealed.
Northern District of Texas Judge Robert Pitman in part granted a preliminary injunction against aspects of House Bill 18, or the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act (SCOPE Act), that would have unconstitutionally restricted protected speech. The law requires social media platforms and other websites to protect minors from “physical, emotional, and developmental harm,” but Pitman ruled the law is not specific enough about what could be considered harmful.
“The final issue for HB 18 is that the law fails to define key categories of prohibited topics, including ‘grooming,’ ‘harassment,’ and ‘substance abuse,'” Pitman wrote in his ruling. “At what point, for example, does alcohol use become ‘substance abuse?’ When does an extreme diet cross the line into an ‘eating disorder?’ What defines ‘grooming’ and ‘harassment?’ Under these indefinite meanings, it is easy to see how an attorney general could arbitrarily discriminate in his enforcement of the law.”
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In August, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sued Paxton on behalf of multiple plaintiffs, including a 16-year-old high school student who said the law unfairly blocks important content, like research on marijuana legalization for a school project.
See here and here for the background. As noted before, there was another lawsuit filed by different plaintiffs that also resulted in a block on other provisions of the SCOPE Act. I found a copy of the ruling from this lawsuit in this KXAN story, and that tells me that these two actions were not combined, so I presume this appeal is limited to this case. I can’t tell from some googling around if that ruling has also been appealed. It would be nice if the stories about these cases would be clearer on that, but maybe I’m too narrow an audience for that. Anyway, this is where we are now.