Court Tosses Arkansas Age Verification Law For Violating The 1st Amendment
Just after a judge granted an injunction against Texas’ adult content age verification law on 1st Amendment grounds, a judge in Arkansas did the same to that state’s social media age verification law. Trade organization NetChoice had challenged the law, and the court basically gave them a complete and total victory.
Just like the ruling in Texas, the opinion here is a good read. As with Texas, Arkansas relied on Tony Allen, who represents the age verification providers, to claim that the technology works great and the laws are fine. As in Texas, the court here is not convinced.
Also, as with Texas, the state in Arkansas had challenged the standing of the organization bringing the suit, and the court rejects that challenge. We’ll skip over the details because it’s just not that interesting. The important stuff is the 1st Amendment analysis.
First, the court looks to see if the law should be rejected on 1st Amendment grounds for being too vague (the Texas court talked about the vagueness issues, but didn’t rule on that point, only using the vague language to emphasize how the law was not narrowly tailored). Here, the court explains in detail how Arkansas’ law is way too vague:
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