Supreme Court allows Texas app store age-check law to take effect
The order lets Texas enforce age verification and parental-consent rules for app stores while a First Amendment challenge continues.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
3 min read
The Supreme Court declined to block a Texas law requiring app stores to verify users’ ages and restrict minors’ downloads, allowing enforcement while litigation continues. The decision matters for Apple, Google, parents and young users because challengers say the statute burdens access to protected speech, while Texas says it protects children online.
In two brief orders issued Monday, the court denied emergency requests from the Computer & Communications Industry Association and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas. The orders said the applications, referred to the full court by Justice Samuel Alito, were denied.
The dispute centers on the Texas App Store Accountability Act. According to the statute, app stores must use a “commercially reasonable” method to determine age and apply restrictions to users under 18.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman blocked the law in December 2025 before its scheduled Jan. 1, 2026 effective date. Pitman found the challengers were likely to show that the law violates the First Amendment.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals paused Pitman’s injunction on June 4, saying there was no basis to block the entire law. The Supreme Court’s refusal to disturb that stay means Texas can enforce the law while the appeal proceeds.
Appeals court signaled support for Texas
The 5th Circuit has scheduled oral argument for Aug. 4. In its June 4 opinion, a three-judge panel said Texas had shown a strong likelihood of success and said the district court likely made several reversible errors.
Pitman had applied strict scrutiny, the toughest level of constitutional review for speech restrictions, after finding that the law was content-based. He cited exemptions for some apps run by nonprofits, government entities and emergency services, and wrote that Texas sought to shield minors from speech it considered harmful or objectionable.
The 5th Circuit disagreed with that approach. The panel said the law at most regulates speech proposing a commercial transaction, which receives intermediate scrutiny, and said app listings propose such transactions even when no money changes hands.
The appeals court also said the law likely meets intermediate scrutiny because it advances Texas’ interests in children’s data, safety and privacy without burdening substantially more speech than necessary. The panel criticized the district court for issuing a universal injunction rather than one limited to the plaintiffs and their members.
Tech groups and Texas split over speech and safety
The Computer & Communications Industry Association, which represents major technology companies, has described the law as a sweeping censorship system for mobile apps. CCIA CEO Matt Schruers said after the Supreme Court action that the group would argue in August that the statute violates the First Amendment, adding that people should not have to provide personal data to access the Internet any more than they should show government ID to enter a bookstore.
Apple and Google announced plans last year to comply with the Texas law, while warning that it would harm user privacy, according to their prior statements. The CCIA said Monday that the Supreme Court’s emergency ruling means Texas may enforce the law during the case.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said after the 5th Circuit ruling that Texas has both the right and duty to protect children from online harms. Paxton said parents should know what children download and be able to prevent access to harmful or inappropriate content.
Students Engaged in Advancing Texas told the Supreme Court the law would treat much of the Internet, as well as books, newspapers, movies and music distributed digitally, as commercial speech that government could restrict more easily. The student group said the statute reaches protected news and educational materials and interferes with parents’ choices about supervising children’s app use.
Texas told the Supreme Court its law is comparable to age limits on driver’s licenses. The state argued that it may restrict children’s app downloads as a product category even if some minors want to use apps for expressive activity.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.