By Jim Saunders ©2025 The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — Plaintiffs pushed back Monday against a request by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody to temporarily halt a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a new law requiring age verification for access to websites with adult content.
The Free Speech Coalition, an adult entertainment industry group, and other plaintiffs also asked Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker for a preliminary injunction to block the law from being enforced while the case plays out.
Moody last month filed a motion seeking a stay of the lawsuit while the U.S. Supreme Court considers a similar challenge to a Texas law. If granted, Moody’s motion would allow the Florida law to remain in effect at least until the Supreme Court rules in the Texas case.
But the plaintiffs, who contend the Florida law violates First Amendment rights, said the lawsuit should move forward. The law took effect last week.
“The state should not be allowed to make use of procedural tools to perpetuate a constitutional violation free of judicial oversight,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote in a filing Monday.
The plaintiffs also filed a separate request for a preliminary injunction. Walker said in an order Tuesday that he will rule on Moody’s motion for a stay before dealing with the preliminary injunction request.
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 also has drawn a constitutional challenge.
Moody’s motion for a stay of the age-verification case said the Supreme Court, which will hear arguments Jan. 15, likely will resolve First Amendment issues that would apply to the Florida law.
“The Supreme Court will hear argument in (the Texas case) in less than a month, on January 15, and in keeping with its usual practice will issue its final opinion by the beginning of July at the latest,” the motion said. “That is barely six months, after which this (Florida) lawsuit could freely proceed with the benefit of the Supreme Court’s authoritative ruling in that case.”
The 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.
Pornhub drew national attention last month when it said it would block people in Florida from having access to the site because of the law.
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