Supreme Court Declines to Block Texas App Store Law

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to interfere with a Texas state law regarding app stores. This law requires age verification and parental consent for minors who want to download apps or make in-app purchases.

Justice Samuel Alito issued the orders rejecting the petitions from those challenging the Texas App Store Accountability Act. This group argued that the law infringes on constitutional rights to free speech.

Previously, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the law to proceed, overriding an earlier district court judgment that declared the law unconstitutional.

The plaintiffs in this case include the Computer & Communications Industry Association and the group Students Engaged in Advancing Texas. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is defending the law against these claims. Plaintiffs have contended that the law unjustly restricts access to content, such as news and educational resources, protected under the First Amendment.

Equity and the public interest support relief because protecting First Amendment rights — and parents’ rights to supervise their children as they see fit, not as the government tells them they should — is always in the public interest, attorneys for Students Engaged in Advancing Texas stated.

On the other side, lawyers from the attorney general’s office argue the law is essential for protecting children. They highlight that unrestricted access to app stores could lead to privacy invasions and sales of data, along with exposure to unsuitable content.

A child with access to an app store and a mobile device can potentially download any number of software applications, potentially agreeing to invasions of the child’s privacy and sale of the child’s data and be exposed to any conceivable content without parental consent or even parental knowledge, the lawyers wrote.