FSC Drops Florida Age-Verification Lawsuit

Florida Just Won the Porn War — FSC Drops Lawsuit After Devastating Supreme Court Loss

By: Keith Witchka, Senior Editor | JRL CHARTS — Gay Adult News – Legal

TALLAHASSEE, FL — (July 8, 2025) — The Free Speech Coalition (FSC) has officially withdrawn its federal lawsuit against Florida’s controversial age-verification law, just days after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Texas case dealt a major blow to First Amendment protections for adult content online.

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On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker accepted the FSC’s motion to dismiss, filed by attorneys representing the adult industry’s trade group. The move follows the Supreme Court’s 6–3 decision to uphold Texas House Bill 1181, affirming the legality of age checks for access to adult content — a ruling that significantly altered the legal terrain nationwide.

The FSC and several major adult companies had challenged Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s law, initially securing a favorable ruling at the district level. But the high court reversed course, applying intermediate scrutiny — a lower standard than the traditionally used strict scrutiny in First Amendment cases — to justify allowing government-mandated age checks.

“We face significantly reduced chances of success in Florida after the Paxton decision,” said Mike Stabile, Director of Public Policy for the FSC, in a statement to the Tallahassee Democrat.

Despite pulling the lawsuit, Stabile emphasized that the battle isn’t over.

“We are continuing to monitor the governmental efforts to restrict adults’ access to the internet in Florida,” he added. “The Paxton decision does not give the government carte blanche to censor content it doesn’t like.”

The decision to drop the Florida suit marks a pivotal shift in strategy for the adult industry, which now faces growing state-level regulation after decades of legal precedent protecting adult expression under the First Amendment.

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