US Supreme Court upholds app store age verification law months before Alabama law takes place

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - The U.S. Supreme Court declined to block Texas from enforcing a law that requires app stores to verify users’ ages, in a decision announced Monday.

Alabama was one of 27 states that joined a brief to the Supreme Court asking them to deny this challenge to Texas’ law.

“We felt like it was important to come to their defense because we knew it would have implications for our own law’s standing,” said Katherine Robertson, chief counsel to the Alabama Attorney General’s Office.

Robertson said the Alabama attorney general’s office had a stake in this challenge. In the Texas case, a group called the Students Engaged in Advancing Texas said the state’s law violated their First Amendment rights, saying the bill limits their access to news and educational material.

“This isn’t traditional protected speech, it’s more commercial speech,” said Robertson. “It’s more a contract that a minor is entering into with a company to then use their platform.”

The Texas law is similar to one passed by Alabama lawmakers in the 2026 session; both bills would look to verify the age of users and get parental consent to download and access apps.

Alabama’s bill, House Bill 161, passed in both chambers with unanimous, bipartisan votes.

While Alabama has not seen a similar challenge to its law, Robertson said the ruling is important to all states looking to make similar changes.

“If we’re coming behind them, we want to make sure our law doesn’t suffer from any deficiencies that came out in litigation from other states,” said Robertson.

Texas’ law can be enforced for now. However, its legal challenges are not over. It will go back to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals since the U.S. Supreme Court did not make an official ruling on whether the bill is constitutional.

Alabama’s House Bill 161 got unanimous support in both chambers during the 2026 session. It is set to take effect Jan. 1, 2027.

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