VOL. I · OCT. 17, 2026 ● NO. 07 ● FREE SPEECH & THE FIRST AMENDMENT
The North Star
“Right is of no Sex — Truth is of no Color.”
After Frederick Douglass, 1847
The free-speech desk — the First Amendment, censorship, and the right to be heard, tracked ruling by ruling across the fifty states.
First Amendment
Supreme Court Upholds Texas Age-Verification Law for Adult Sites
In a 6-3 ruling, the Court held that Texas's HB 1181, requiring age verification to access sexual material online, survives intermediate scrutiny under the First Amendment.
A laptop screen showing an adult-content age gate requiring identity verification, central to the Free Speech Coalition case. — AI-generated illustration
On June 27, 2025, the Supreme Court upheld Texas's HB 1181, which requires commercial websites with substantial sexual content to verify that users are adults. Writing for a 6-3 majority, Justice Clarence Thomas applied intermediate rather than strict scrutiny.
The Free Speech Coalition, an adult-industry trade group, argued the law imposed unconstitutional burdens on adults' access to protected speech and threatened their privacy. The Court concluded that verifying age is only an incidental burden on adults when the aim is shielding minors from obscene-for-minors material.
By choosing intermediate scrutiny, the majority departed from earlier internet-speech cases decided when the web looked very different. Justice Thomas noted those precedents addressed the internet of the 1990s.
The dissent warned the decision weakens protection for lawful adult expression and normalizes identity checks online. Analysts say the ruling opens the door to age-verification mandates well beyond adult websites.
6-3
Decision
1181
House bill upheld
Reno and Ashcroft II both dealt with the internet as it existed in the 1990s.
— Justice Clarence Thomas, Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton
Video caption
How the case moved
2023
Texas enacts HB 1181 requiring age verification for sexual content.
JAN 2025
Supreme Court hears oral argument.
JUN 2025
Court upholds the law 6-3 under intermediate scrutiny.
✓ Fact check
Claim
“The Supreme Court struck down online age-verification laws as unconstitutional.”
Reality
In Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton the Court did the opposite, upholding Texas's age-verification law under intermediate scrutiny.
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Legal References
Bluebook citation · cases, statutes & the record
Primary legal authority cited in this report. Links go to the public record where one exists.
[1]
Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, 606 U.S. 461 ¶ source
U.S. Supreme Court 2025
¶
Academic References
ABA / law-review style · secondary scholarship
Secondary scholarship that informs the analysis.
[1]
Reference text
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