The US Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear a case challenging a Texas law that requires age verification and imposes health warnings for pornography websites.

Texas Bill 1181, which was passed in September 2023, requires age verification measures to be used by websites that host sexually explicit material if it comprises at least one-third of the website’s content. Acceptable age verification methods include providing digital identification such as a state ID or driver’s license or using a commercial age verification system.

The law, which seeks to curb minors’ access to online pornography, defines “material harmful to minors” as content, when taken as a whole with respect to minors, is designed to “appeal to the prurient interest,” is sexually explicit in nature, and lacks “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.”

Websites that fail to use proper verification methods may face penalties up to $10,000 a day for each day in violation, $10,000 a day for improperly retaining identifying information and $250,000 a if a minor access pornography on the website.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit previously ruled using “rational-basis” review that the age verification requirement is rationally related to the government’s legitimate interest in protecting minors from accessing pornography and lifted an injunction against it.

However, the Fifth Circuit refused to lift an injunction against the health warnings, finding that they unlawfully compelled commercial speech.

Upon the Supreme Court’s agreement to hear the case, Alison Boden, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, said in a statement, “Sexual expression is the canary in the coal mine of free speech, and we look forward to defending the rights of all Americans to access the internet privately and free from surveillance.”