U.S. Supreme Court Denies Requests to Block Texas App Store Age Verification Law

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 29 declined to block Texas from enforcing a state law that requires app stores to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent for minors seeking to download apps or make in-app purchases on mobile phones. Justice Samuel Alito issued a pair of one-sentence orders denying petitions by plaintiffs who claim that the Texas App Store Accountability Act violates users’ constitutional rights to free speech.

Last month a three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law can take effect while litigation continues. The panel suspended a district court ruling from December 2025 that had declared the statute unconstitutional.

The plaintiffs include the Computer & Communications Industry Association and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is the defendant in both cases. Plaintiffs’ lawyers argued that the law impermissibly seeks to limit access to content protected by the First Amendment, including news and educational material.

Attorneys for Students Engaged in Advancing Texas wrote that protecting First Amendment rights and parents’ rights to supervise their children as they see fit is always in the public interest. Attorneys from Paxton’s office countered that the law protects children from dangerous modern products.

They wrote that a child with access to an app store and a mobile device can potentially download any number of applications, agree to invasions of privacy and sale of data, and be exposed to any content without parental consent or knowledge.