Supreme Court declines to block Texas age verification law for app downloads

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court said it would allow Texas to enforce a law requiring app stores to verify users' ages while the issue plays out in the lower courts. CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson breaks down the constitutional question.

The Supreme Court declined to stop Texas from enforcing a state law that requires app stores and developers to verify users' ages and receive parental consent for children younger than 18 years. In a one-sentence order Monday, the nation's high court denied a request to pause enforcement of the law, the Texas App Store Accountability...

The Supreme Court allowed Texas to enforce a law requiring app stores to verify users' ages and obtain parental consent before minors can download apps. Tech industry groups argue the law broadly restricts young people's access to digital speech, but the court let a 5th Circuit order stand without explanation or noted dissents. CNN notes that the Supreme Court's decision "doesn't resolve the case but rather will allow Texas to enforce the law while the litigation continues to play out." From the report: "A minor child who downloads a software application from an app store agrees to contractual terms of service, including whether the child's location will be tracked, whether the child's privacy will be protected, whether information from the child's phone can be sold by the developer, and whether the child waives the right to sue," Texas told the Supreme Court in urging the court to allow its law to take effect. But the Computer & Communications Industry Association, a trade group whose members include Apple and Google, said the law would effectively bar young people from accessing a wide range of content, "be it a book by Ernest Hemingway or J.K. Rowling, a Taylor Swift album, or a subscription to National Geographic." Allowing the law to take effect, the group said, would have "profound consequences for the protection of digital speech." [...] In the new case, involving Texas' age verification for apps, a federal district court blocked the law's enforcement in December -- days before it was set to take effect. But a three-judge panel of the conservative 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals put that decision on hold in early June, allowing the state to enforce it. By declining to take up the emergency appeal from the computer and student groups, the Supreme Court has left the 5th Circuit's decision in place. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Texas' App Store Accountability Act requires minors to have their parents' permission to download most apps. The Supreme Court says the law can go into effect as lawsuits continue in lower courts.

Parents must approve app downloads for minors as legal fight over Texas age verification law continues.