Supreme Court lets Texas enforce app store age-verification law
The Supreme Court on July 6 declined to block Texas’s App Store Accountability Act , allowing the state to enforce the 2025 law while litigation over its constitutionality continues. The justices, acting on the emergency docket without explanation, denied a request from challengers to lift a lower-court order that had let the law take effect.
The law requires app stores to verify users’ ages and link accounts held by anyone under 18 to a parent or guardian. Before a minor can download an app, the parent must receive notice of the app’s age rating and grant approval. The Computer & Communications Industry Association — whose members include Apple and Google — along with a coalition of students argued the requirements violate the First Amendment.
A federal judge in Austin had granted an injunction in December, finding the law likely unconstitutional, but the 5th Circuit put that ruling on hold on June 4. Monday’s order leaves the appeals court’s stay in place, so the mandates apply for now. Because the ruling is procedural rather than a decision on the merits, the underlying First Amendment question remains unresolved and could return to the Court later. Texas is one of several states pushing age-verification duties onto platforms, and letting enforcement proceed gives similar laws elsewhere a firmer footing.