Sadly, it’s hard to win them all. While we were attending the FSC’s 30-year celebration of board chair Jeffrey Douglas, the Supreme Court’s ruling on FREE SPEECH COALITION, INC., ET AL. v. PAXTON, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS came in. In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court voted to keep the age verification laws in place that the FSC was hoping to overturn. Needless to say, this is not good news. In their ruling, the Justices who voted in favor of these age verification laws neglected to mention how they fail to properly protect user privacy.
As for the three who opposed the ruling, you can jump to page 41 to see some very well-argued points, including one from Justice Kagan, who states: “...adults and children do not live in hermetically sealed boxes. In preventing children from gaining access to ‘obscene for children’ speech, States sometimes take measures impeding adults from viewing it too—even though, for adults, it is a constitutionally protected expression.”
What’s more, there are major privacy issues for this ineffective yet restrictive law, and the proof is already in the pudding. When everything from Experian to the government is routinely hacked, forcing companies to keep private user data can be devastating, just ask anyone who used Ashley Madison in 2015.
Thankfully, the news came at a time when advocates were together to commiserate and plan for the next phase of the fight. There will be appeals and challenges, and we’ll be there to make sure attention is where it matters most.
Read the ruling