MEMPHIS, Tenn. – In an order issued yesterday, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Sheryl H. Lipman of the Western District of Tennessee granted a motion for a preliminary injunction requested by the Free Speech Coalition and its co-plaintiffs in their challenge of the state’s age-verification law.

Lipman opened her order by noting the “First Amendment is not shy in its protective sweep.”

“It sits at the top of our Bill of Rights as the ‘star in our constitutional constellation’ because its light reaches orthodox and unorthodox expression alike,” Lipman wrote, later noting that the “Protect Tennessee Minors Act (“PTMA”) stands in a graveyard full of similar content-based restrictions at the state and federal level that lived – and died – before it.”

“Not only does the PTMA suffer from the same First Amendment fatalities as the state and federal laws that came before it, it also uniquely exacerbates those shortcomings in its overbreadth,” Lipman added. “While it may be designed to prevent minors from accessing pornography, a laudable objective, it does much more than that – it prevents minors from viewing sexual content that is merely ‘inappropriate’ for them, regardless of whether it is pornographic or not. And it does so by quarantining that content from both adults and minors alike.”

Lipman further observed the PTMA “effectively reduces Tennessee’s adult population to viewing only what the legislature deems is ‘fit for children,’ unless websites are willing to pay to verify the ages of their users, and unless those users are willing to give up their privacy to access those websites.”

“In its crusade against internet pornography, Tennessee would ‘burn the house to roast the pig,’” Lipman wrote, quoting Butler v. Michigan, “The First Amendment undoubtedly requires more precision than this kind of scorched-earth approach. Thus, Plaintiffs’ motion is granted.”

Lipman noted that while the Tennessee legislature “has a compelling interest in protecting children from harmful content” and this interest is “uncontested,” the approach the legislature takes under the PTMA simply goes further than the First Amendment permits.

“In its attempt to protect children, the State will unavoidably suppress a large amount of speech that adults have a First Amendment right to give and receive,” Lipman wrote. “The legislature’s goal, however admirable, does not allow it to undermine an adult’s freedom of speech. Neither the legislature nor this Court can turn a blind eye to the Constitution.”

In a statement issued yesterday, the FSC hailed Lipman’s decision.

“We applaud the Court’s decision,” FSC Executive Director Alison Boden said. “This is a deeply flawed law that put website operators at risk of criminal prosecution for something a trivial as a mention of the human nipple. I cannot express enough gratitude to our legal team, especially Gill Sperlein, who flew to Tennessee on the eve of the Christmas holiday to argue this case. These victories come with long hours and hard work and can only be achieved through the financial support of our members.”

As noted in the FSC’s statement yesterday, the organization is challenging similar laws in a number of other states, including Louisiana, Texas, Utah, Indiana, Montana, and Florida. The U.S. Supreme court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the FSC’s challenge to the Texas law, Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, on January 15.

You can read the full text of Judge Lipman’s order here and read the full FSC statement here.

Gavel image by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels