TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, an anti-porn Republican, has motioned for a stay in a lawsuit brought by the Free Speech Coalition challenging the state’s controversial age verification law, House Bill (HB) 3. The law is scheduled to enter force on Jan. 1, 2025.
Moody’s motion comes a few weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in a similar case on Jan. 15. The case challenges an age-gating law in Texas. As a reminder, the case to be heard before the high court is Free Speech Coalition et al. v. Paxton.
The U.S. Supreme Court “will hear argument in Paxton in less than a month … and in keeping with its usual practice, will issue its final opinion by the beginning of July at the latest,” said Moody. “That is barely six months, after which this lawsuit could freely proceed with the benefit of the Supreme Court’s authoritative ruling in that case.”
If Moody is granted the motion, the Free Speech Coalition’s bid to challenge HB 3 will be halted until the Texas age verification lawsuit is resolved.
HB 3 applies age verification requirements to the entire popular internet in Florida. That means that social media networks and adult platforms are subject to penalties if the companies that own and manage them do not adopt age verification measures.
Moody also participated in an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court in Paxton, supporting the state of Texas and Attorney General Ken Paxton’s defense of its AV law.
The Free Speech Coalition and its fellow plaintiffs in the Texas and Florida cases allege that age verification laws violate the First Amendment rights of adult industry firms, professionals in the field, and the millions of consumers of adult content throughout the United States, especially in the two states in question.
Pornhub’s parent company, the Montreal-based Aylo, confirmed to AVN on Dec. 18 that IP addresses in Florida will be geo-blocked starting in the new year.
