On the final day of the session, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down several major rulings.
Friday’s decisions could impact a Georgia law restricting minors’ access to some social media sites.
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Totenberg’s injunction, issued on Thursday, halted that Georgia law.
“The act curbs the speech rights of Georgia’s youth while imposing an immense, potentially intrusive burden on all Georgians who wish to engage in the most central computerized public for the 21st century,” Emory University Law professor Jonathan Nash said.
The 2024 law is intended to protect minors from some of the pressures of social media.
Nash said the judge didn’t think that was enough to restrict minors’ rights to free speech.
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“Part of what Judge Totenberg wrote was the way this law, she feels, the way that it’s drafted, it restricts minors’ rights almost absolutely,” Nash said.
But in her injunction, Totenberg also referenced the law’s age verification program provision.
“In addition to curbing children’s free speech rights, the law’s age verification program would also impose an invasive burden on all Georgians’ online speech,” Nash said.
But 24 hours later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that age verification is allowed under the Constitution when it comes to restricting minors’ access to adult sites.
Nash concedes that restricting minors’ access to adult sites and social media sites is different things, but also said that part of Totenberg’s ruling could be challenged.
“Judge Totenberg did write in her opinion that adults have a right to be sort of free of age verification, and I think the Supreme Court today, actually, the First Amendment does not confer any right on adults to be free of age verification,” he said.
In a statement late Friday, Republican state Sen. Jason Anavitarte, who wrote that law, referenced the Supreme Court decision and believes it will leave Totenberg no choice but to lift her injunction.
“I am immensely grateful for today’s Supreme Court ruling in Free Speech Coalition Inc v Paxton, solidifying our Senate-led efforts in partnership with the House to protect our vulnerable children from harmful content online through Senate Bill 351- legislation I was proud to sponsor.
“One day after liberal Obama Appointee, US District Court Judge, Amy Totenberg, issued an injunction preventing Georgia’s age verification law from taking effect, The Supreme Court found that laws like SB 351 ‘have only an incidental effect on protected speech and that The First Amendment leaves undisturbed States’ traditional power to prevent minors from accessing speech that is obscene from their perspective. ... Requiring proof of age is an ordinary and appropriate means of enforcing an age-based limit on obscenity to minors.’
“Based on today’s ruling at The Supreme Court, Judge Totenberg should be left with no choice but to allow SB 351 to go into effect. I am immensely grateful for Justice Clarence Thomas’ well written opinion and remain optimistic that SB 351 will go into effect in its entirety.”
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