North Idaho lawmakers respond to Supreme Court ruling on Texas law

COEUR d’ALENE — After the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Texas law aimed at blocking children from seeing online pornography, local legislators praised a similar Idaho law passed in 2024.

Nearly half of the states have passed laws requiring adult website users to verify their ages to access pornographic material. 

An adult-entertainment industry trade group called the Free Speech Coalition had challenged the Texas law, arguing that it puts an unfair free-speech burden on adults by requiring them to submit personal information that could be vulnerable to hacking or tracking. The court ruled 6-3 in the matter last month. 

“Adults have the right to access speech obscene only to minors ... but adults have no First Amendment right to avoid age verification,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the majority opinion. 

The similar Idaho law requires “pornography websites” to verify the age of users before anyone can see the content. 

“We wrote the bill because, like other Idaho parents, we want to protect Idaho teens and children from the long-term, devastating consequences of online material we all know is some of the worst and damaging parts of our new digital age,” Rep. Elaine Price, R-Coeur d’Alene, said in a news release July 29. 

The website Pornhub has stopped operating in Idaho and several other states, citing the technical and privacy hurdles in complying with age verification laws. 

“Idaho Republicans believe that parents — not the state and not government bureaucrats — are best positioned to protect kids,” said Sen. Ben Toews, R-Coeur d’Alene. “That is why Idaho law puts parents in charge and empowers them to hold porn companies accountable.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.