Supreme Court Declines to Block Texas App Store Age Verification Law

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to block Texas from enforcing a state law that requires app stores to verify the ages of mobile device users and to obtain parental consent before any minor can download an app. In a pair of unsigned orders issued Monday afternoon with no public dissents, the justices turned down requests to reinstate a federal judge’s order that had barred the state from implementing Senate Bill 2420, also known as the App Store Accountability Act.

The law stays in force while the Computer & Communications Industry Association and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas continue their constitutional challenge. Their next stop is an expedited hearing at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in early August.

What SB 2420 Requires of App Stores and Developers

The Texas App Store Accountability Act reaches every app store that distributes software to users in the state, and most of its rules apply to all users, not only minors. App store owners must verify the age of every individual in Texas who creates an account, then assign that user to one of four statutory age categories. The age check has to be carried out using a “commercially reasonable” method that the statute does not define.

If the user is a minor, the app store must link the account to a verified parent or guardian account. Before the minor can download an app or make an in-app purchase, the parent or guardian has to receive notice of the app’s age rating and explicitly approve the transaction. If the parent later revokes approval, the app store has to notify the developer. Developers, in turn, must assign an age rating to every app and every in-app purchase based on the same four statutory categories, and disclose the rating and the reasons for it to each app store through which the app is sold.

App stores can use any commercially reasonable method to verify that the parent or guardian is an adult with legal authority over the minor’s account, and they must notify developers when consent is revoked or when an app changes meaningfully enough to require fresh approval. Penalties for violations include civil suits by parents, with damages, attorney’s fees, and punitive damages on the table.

From the Governor’s Desk to the Supreme Court

The law has already survived one injunction, one appellate stay, and now a Supreme Court denial. Governor Greg Abbott signed SB 2420 on May 27, 2025; the law was supposed to take effect on January 1, 2026.

1. May 27, 2025: Governor Greg Abbott signs SB 2420, the App Store Accountability Act, into law.
2. October 2025: The Computer & Communications Industry Association and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas file parallel First Amendment challenges in federal court.
3. December 23, 2025: U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin temporarily blocks the law in a 20-page ruling, finding it likely violates the First Amendment.
4. June 4, 2026: The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals puts Pitman’s order on hold, allowing Texas to begin enforcing the law.
5. July 6, 2026: The U.S. Supreme Court declines to reinstate Pitman’s injunction, leaving the 5th Circuit’s stay in place.

Pitman’s reasoning has framed the case from the start. He wrote that the act “is akin to a law that would require every bookstore to verify the age of every customer at the door and, for minors, require parental consent before the child or teen could enter and again when they try to purchase a book.” Texas appealed, and the 5th Circuit wrote in lifting the injunction that “Texas has a substantial, if not compelling, interest in protecting children, and parents need to have the necessary information to make informed choices affecting their children’s upbringing.” The appellate court has scheduled an expedited hearing for early August.

The First Amendment Question

The case is now framed, by both sides, as a fight over whether SB 2420 regulates speech or commerce. The challengers told the justices that allowing the law to take effect would turn a vast amount of online content into “commercial speech” the government could more readily ban, restrict, edit, or compel. They point to a Supreme Court ruling from last year that upheld a different Texas law requiring age verification on pornographic websites, decided 6-3, as the limit of what the state can do on content.

Texas has argued the opposite. In its brief to the justices, the state wrote that SB 2420 “regulates commercial transactions, rather than speech,” specifically the conditions in which young people can agree to contractual terms required to download an app. Texas also pointed out that the law “regulates all apps, regardless of their content,” which the state said meant Pitman should have applied a less stringent constitutional test, known as intermediate scrutiny. The state added that Pitman’s order was the kind of “universal injunction” the court barred last year in Trump v. CASA.

People should not have to turn over personal data to access the internet any more than they should show government identification to enter a bookstore.

That line came from Matt Schruers, president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, on Monday after the Supreme Court acted. The trade group counts Apple and Google among its members. In the Bible app and New York Times filing, the CCIA argued that “users should not have to provide ID to download a Bible app or the New York Times, but Texas requires just that,” and that “no state has ever required its citizens to prove their age before reading a newspaper, entering a bookstore, or even accessing the internet.”

Adults and Developers Are on the Hook Too

The visible target of the law is minors, but its mechanics pull every Texas app user into the verification system and put new compliance work on app developers and stores. Under SB 2420, an adult who wants to download a Bible app or read the New York Times on a phone still has to verify age at account creation. That data has to be shared with developers, who use it to confirm a user’s age category before serving content.

Developers face their own stack of new duties under the statute. They must assign an age rating to every app and every in-app purchase using the same four statutory categories, and push those ratings to every app store that carries the app. They have to verify each user’s age category and, for minors, whether parental consent has been obtained, using the information the app store supplies. For a section-by-section breakdown of the developer obligations, the law spells out each duty in turn.

Personal data received from app stores may be used only for enforcing age-related restrictions, ensuring legal compliance, and implementing safety features, and must be deleted after the required verification is completed. Developers also have to notify every app store before making significant changes to terms of service, privacy policy, data collection practices, age ratings, monetization features, or app functionality.

Parents, too, gain a private right of action under the statute. A parent or guardian may bring a civil suit against an app store owner or developer for violations of the act and may recover actual damages, punitive damages, attorney’s fees, and court costs. The CCIA has argued in its filings that the existing app stores already “provide various, voluntary tools that enable parents to control their children’s exposure to apps and content,” and that the Supreme Court should err on the side of the Constitution by blocking the law while the case continues.

Why Other States Are Writing Their Own Versions

Texas is not the only state trying to gate the app stores this way. Louisiana and Utah have passed similar laws that have not yet gone into effect, and California’s parallel age verification fight is already underway. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has framed his state’s law in the same protective terms, saying in a statement after the Fifth Circuit’s stay that Texas “has not only the right, but the duty, to protect children from the harms of our modern digital space” and that “parents deserve to know what their children are downloading and to have the ability to stop them from accessing harmful or inappropriate content.”

The trend now extends overseas. Australia in 2025 became the first country to ban social media for children under 16, a policy that has been watched closely by U.S. lawmakers. Back in Texas, the challengers are pressing their case at the 5th Circuit in early August, and the CCIA has separately sued Texas to permanently strike the law. The next round of rulings will come from that appellate court. If the 5th Circuit ultimately upholds SB 2420, the case is expected to return to the Supreme Court on the merits, where Monday’s silence gives little preview of how the justices will rule.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does the Texas app store age verification law take effect?

The law was originally set to take effect on January 1, 2026, but it was blocked by a federal judge before it could. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted that block on June 4, 2026, allowing Texas to begin enforcing the law while the appeal continues. The Supreme Court declined to intervene on July 6, 2026, leaving the law in force.

What does the App Store Accountability Act require?

App stores must verify the age of every Texas user, classify each user into one of four statutory age categories, link any minor’s account to a parent or guardian, and obtain fresh parental approval before each app download or in-app purchase. Developers must rate every app and in-app purchase using the same categories and disclose the rating and its rationale to every app store that carries the app.

Who has challenged the law and on what grounds?

The Computer & Communications Industry Association, which counts Apple and Google among its members, and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas have filed parallel lawsuits arguing that SB 2420 violates the First Amendment by forcing private app stores to police access to a vast amount of online speech. Both suits are now consolidated at the 5th Circuit.

What happens next in the legal fight?

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hold an expedited hearing on the law’s constitutionality in early August. If the court upholds the law, the challengers are expected to take the case back to the U.S. Supreme Court on the merits.

Could the Texas approach spread to other states?

Louisiana and Utah have already passed similar laws that have not yet gone into effect, and California is moving on parallel legislation. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has cast his state’s law as a model for child online safety, while app industry groups warn that state-by-state age-verification regimes could fragment app distribution in the U.S.