Washington – The Computer & Communications Industry Association and its co-plaintiff NetChoice filed a response brief today in their ongoing First Amendment challenge to Texas HB18, a social media law known as the SCOPE Act. In August 2024, a Texas district court agreed to block several key parts of HB18 from becoming effective, and Texas appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The Texas AG filed its appellate brief in April 2025, and today CCIA and NetChoice responded to the AG’s arguments.
Today’s brief makes clear that the SCOPE Act attempts to restrict, and in many cases ban, access to protected online speech. Under the longstanding Supreme Court test that was reiterated in its July 1, 2024 Moody v. NetChoice/CCIA opinion, those restrictions violate the First Amendment many times over.
The following can be attributed to CCIA Senior Vice President, Chief of Staff, and Director of CCIA Litigation Center Stephanie Joyce:
“The SCOPE Act’s requirements to monitor, filter, and block internet content deserve stringent First Amendment scrutiny, which they cannot survive. The district court’s decision to block these requirements was in keeping with federal law and we ask the appeals court to uphold that decision. We look forward to pursuing our legal challenge to a final judgment that this law is unconstitutional.”
