Tennessee Judge Blocks Law Requiring Age Verification for Porn Sites

Does protecting kids from being exposed to pornography suppress the free speech rights of adults? According to U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman of Memphis, Tennessee, the answer is yes. But her opinion may be in the minority.

In recent months, at least 19 states have passed laws that require age verification on porn sites to help decrease the chances of minors accessing them. Tennessee is the latest to join in this effort through the Protect Tennessee Minors Act, which was supposed to go into effect on Jan. 1. Lipman, however, largely blocked the law in court because she believed it would “likely suppress the First Amendment free speech rights of adults without actually preventing children from accessing the harmful material in question.”

The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh responded with skepticism: “The judge is saying that we should not [enact this law] at all because it won’t succeed in actually preventing every child from accessing porn. Okay, but it will prevent some of them, won’t it?” According to Walsh, the judge’s argument is that “if it’s a measure that will not prevent every child from seeing [porn], then we might as well prevent no child from seeing it. That’s the argument, which … we would never apply to anything else.”

On Wednesday’s episode of “Washington Watch,” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, a Republican, weighed in on the conversation with Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. Skrmetti has asked a federal appeals court to allow the legislation to take effect despite ongoing litigation. “[T]he Protect Tennessee Minors Act is intended to make sure that only adults are able to access explicit, obscene material on the internet,” he said. “[T]here’s evidence all over the place of children who can access some really disturbing and horrible stuff with virtually no effort [as] it just pervades the internet.”

While the judge blocked Tennessee’s law, Skrmetti emphasized that it passed the Tennessee General Assembly “unanimously” in that “every single member … either voted for it or didn’t vote. There was not one vote against this law when it went through.” There are “many other states that have adopted similar laws,” he added. “The whole point of it is not to keep adults out … but [to protect] our kids from the psychological impact of … these materials. … [T]he law just seeks to make sure that kids can’t see what kids shouldn’t see.”

Referring to the explicit material online, Perkins contended, “It certainly is pervasive. I would say it’s pernicious. I would also say that there’s evidence to suggest that … the pornography industry [is] pursuing people to kind of catch them in their net.” As such, the law “is simply trying to provide … a wall of protection that just makes sure that whoever crosses into that [realm] is, in fact, 18 years of age.”

Skrmetti further underscored that American laws safeguard minors “all the time,” detailing how “there are laws protecting children from things that adults can do all over the place [such as] buying alcohol, buying a gun, [and] voting. There are all sorts of activities that you have to be 18 to do. … There are things that kids should not be able to do, and we as adults need to protect them.”

It’s “very common sense,” Perkins insisted. It’s a “rational argument that … you have to show an ID to get alcohol, to buy cigarettes. Why not pornography?”

As Skrmetti emphasized, “[T]he First Amendment is very important. It’s a cornerstone of our American republic, and free speech is something that we need to protect vitally.” However, he added, opponents of the Protect Tennessee Minors Act such as Lipman “read free speech very broadly. There are some opinions from way back from the Supreme Court that talked about inhibiting adult access to materials in the course of protecting children. But at the end of the day, the First Amendment does not apply to obscenity. And a lot of the material out there is obscene by definition.”

He continued, “[I]f you go back and look at even the very liberal justices back in the ’60s, Justice [William] Brennan, who was perhaps the most liberal justice of all on free speech, he had no problem with limiting kids’ access to pornography.” This is because, as Skrmetti explained, “he didn’t see any free speech implications there.” And yet, “there are people out there, some maybe self-servingly, who say that even trying to restrict kids’ access to this material poses a grave threat to free speech and needs to be stopped. And those are the arguments that are raised against us.”

“It’s quite significant,” Perkins added, “that this was supported unanimously by the Legislature there in Tennessee. … That’s a pretty high threshold.” Skrmetti agreed. “It’s very unusual for anything controversial to move unanimously.” Despite having a Legislature full of “people with very different political ideas,” he noted, “all of them recognize that we need to protect our kids.”

In America, Skrmetti concluded, “You’re allowed to disagree. People come at things from different directions. But this is something that we can all unite around. Our children are assailed with these negative, evil influences, and we have to take steps to protect them.”

Originally published by The Washington Stand

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