Washington – Oral argument will be heard today in the Computer & Communications Industry Association’s First Amendment challenge to Texas HB18, a social media law known as the SCOPE Act. CCIA and its co-plaintiff NetChoice will argue that the Texas law unconstitutionally restricts, and in many cases bans, access to protected online speech.
Parts of the law have been blocked from taking effect after a federal district court judge agreed the provisions likely violate the First Amendment. The argument Monday will allow CCIA to demonstrate to a Fifth Circuit panel in New Orleans that Texas’s law targets a type of speech for monitoring and blocking and uses overly broad, vague language to squelch websites’ ability to display lawful speech and severely restricts internet users’ access to that speech.
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 but cannot survive it. Texas seems to be forgetting that even young people have First Amendment rights to speak and access lawful information, whether that’s at a library or online. Today we made clear to the Court of Appeals that our injunction against this misguided law should continue.”
