The Supreme Court is being asked to weigh in on a legal battle over a Texas law requiring app stores to implement age verification for users and require parental permission for minors to download apps after a federal appeals court allowed the law to go into effect.
Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, a left-wing education activist group, and the Computer and Communications Industry Association, a lobbying group for the technology industry, both filed emergency petitions to the Supreme Court urging it to halt enforcement of SB 2420, which imposes the requirements on app stores, alleging it is a violation of the First Amendment.
“No State has ever required its citizens to prove their age before reading a newspaper, entering a bookstore, or even accessing the internet,” the CCIA petition said. “Texas Senate Bill 2420 does exactly that — for every mobile app on every mobile phone. Under SB2420, before a Texan may download the Wall Street Journal — or even a weather app or calculator — he must first verify his age. And any Texan under 18 must link his account to a verified parent’s account (another verification hurdle) and obtain express parental consent for any app download or any in-app purchase — every audiobook, every movie, and so on — without any possibility of blanket consent.”
“In doing so, the Act deputizes app stores to police both minors’ and adults’ threshold access to vast amounts of online speech — and then restrict minors’ access on an app-by-app and download-by-download basis,” the petition continued.
The petitions argued a “brick-and-mortar analog” to the law in question would be unconstitutional and urged them to block the law while litigation continues in lower federal courts.
Justice Samuel Alito, who oversees emergency petitions from Texas federal courts, requested a response from Texas officials by 4 p.m. on June 22. The Supreme Court is not expected to issue a ruling on the petition until after that time.
A federal district court blocked enforcement of the law in December 2025, days before it was set to go into effect, finding it likely violated the First Amendment. A panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit lifted the injunction on the law weeks ago, finding that Texas was likely to succeed in the First Amendment lawsuit.
SUPREME COURT TO HEAR CHALLENGE TO INDEFINITE DETENTION OF CRIMINAL IMMIGRANTS
The Supreme Court is slated to conclude its current term in the coming weeks when it releases the remaining 20 opinions in cases they have heard arguments in over the past several months. The high court is next scheduled to release opinions on Thursday.
Some of the most closely watched cases awaiting a ruling include legal challenges to President Donald Trump’s firing ability, a pair of state laws barring biological males from women’s sports, and laws allowing late-arriving mail ballots to be counted.