Judge Allows Utah Law Requiring Age Verification For Porn Sites To Remain In Effect

A U.S. District Court judge allowed a Utah law requiring age verification for porn websites to remain in effect, dismissing a lawsuit that argued the legislation infringed on the First Amendment and individual privacy, according to a press release.

The Free Speech Coalition (FSC) filed a lawsuit on May 3 after a law went into effect in the state of Utah that required porn websites to use age verification screening or face potential civil suits from Utah citizens. Judge Ted Stewart dismissed the lawsuit Tuesday, allowing the law to remain in place, but FSC announced that they plan to appeal the decision, according to a press release.

“Utah is attempting to duck responsibility for a dangerous law passed by its own legislature, but make no mistake — the law is unconstitutional,” FSC Executive Director Alison Boden said in the press release. “As we’ve seen with Don’t Say Gay, the Texas Heartbeat Act and other attacks on free speech, states are attempting to do an end-run around the First Amendment by outsourcing censorship to citizens. It’s a new mechanism, but a deeply flawed one. Government attempts to chill speech, no matter the method, are prohibited by the Constitution and decades of legal precedent.”

Stewart did not address the group’s First Amendment concerns but wrote in his decision that the group could not sue state officials since enforcement of the law was left up to individual citizens, who can sue and request compensation for damages if the websites do not confirm a user’s age, according to The Associated Press. Due to this, he rejected the group’s request for a pre-enforcement injunction.

Republican Gov. Spencer Cox said that the bill was the “least we can do as a society,” according to The New York Times.

“The very least we can do as a society is to ask companies to verify the age of those viewing the pornography they produce and distribute,” Cox said. “This unanimous, bipartisan legislation provides multiple ways to satisfy that requirement. However, I fully support PornHub’s decision to remove their content in Utah.”

The state has been pushing protections for children against porn for several years. In 2016, Cox signed legislation that called the porn industry a public health crisis in the state and in 2020, Utah passed a law requiring all pornographic videos to have a warning stating that the content is harmful to minors.

FSC did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.