US Supreme Court

  • Supreme Court Rules that Government Can Impose Age Verification Requirements on Porn Sites Subject Only to Limited Privacy Safeguards

    June 27, 2025

    • Age Assurance

    • Platform Accountability & Governance

    • Platform Governance Laws & Regulations

    • The First Amendment

    • Updates

  • In TikTok v. Garland, Supreme Court Sends Good Vibes for Privacy Laws, But Congress’s Targeting of TikTok Alone Won’t Do Much to Protect Privacy

    January 17, 2025

    We need protections from all tech companies, not just TikTok, and we can only achieve that through a strong, comprehensive federal privacy law, vigorous antitrust enforcement, and other regulatory measures that apply to all companies exploiting our personal data. But overexpansive First Amendment interpretations pushed by the tech industry are a dangerous obstacle to the types of laws necessary to truly protect Americans’ privacy rights. In taking a more cautious First Amendment stance, the Supreme Court signaled the general viability of privacy and online safety laws.

    • Consumer Privacy

    • Data Protection

    • International Privacy Laws

    • Platform Accountability & Governance

    • Privacy Laws

    • The First Amendment

    • U.S. Privacy Laws

    • Analysis

  • In Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, the Supreme Court Should Preserve Legislatures’ Power to Protect Kids Online 

    January 14, 2025

    The Supreme Court’s decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton could potentially impact legislatures' abilities to enact special protections for kids online. A Moody v. NetChoice-like decision that helps courts navigate the nuances of different laws involving age determination would preserve legislatures’ power to protect kids online while also prohibiting online censorship.

    • Age Assurance

    • Platform Accountability & Governance

    • Platform Governance Laws & Regulations

    • The First Amendment

    • Analysis

  • In Texas Age Verification Case, EPIC Urges Supreme Court to Adopt Framework that Can Differentiate Unconstitutional Online Censorship Laws from Constitutional Kids’ Privacy and Safety Laws

    September 23, 2024

    • Age Assurance

    • Platform Accountability & Governance

    • Platform Governance Laws & Regulations

    • The First Amendment

    • Updates

  • Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton

    September 23, 2024

    Whether a court should apply rational basis review or, instead, strict scrutiny in a facial challenge to a law that requires pornography websites to verify the age of users in order to block kids from accessing pornography.

    • Platform Accountability & Governance

    • Platform Governance Laws & Regulations

    • The First Amendment

    • Amicus Briefs

  • It’s Time for Courts to Tackle AI Harms with Product Liability

    July 25, 2024

    After this past Supreme Court term, federal agencies' ability to regulate AI is up in the air. But AI regulatory efforts in Europe show us that agencies aren't the only way to regulate this technology. Our courts have a role to play too, and product liability may just be a path forward.

    • AI Policy

    • Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights

    • Commercial AI Use

    • Data Protection

    • International Privacy

    • Analysis

  • Far From a Punt, SCOTUS’s NetChoice Decision Crushes Big Tech’s Big Litigation Dreams

    July 16, 2024

    The Supreme Court's decision in the NetChoice cases is a huge blow to Big Tech’s litigation strategy of requesting the broadest possible relief from regulation based on nothing more than vibes. 

    • Children's Privacy

    • Data Protection

    • Platform Accountability & Governance

    • Platform Governance Laws & Regulations

    • Privacy Laws

    • The First Amendment

    • U.S. State Privacy Laws

    • Analysis

  • In NetChoice Cases, Supreme Court Labels a Surprisingly Narrow Class of Online Platform Company Activities as Protected Expression

    July 10, 2024

    This blog post will discuss three major takeaways. First, the Court recognized that platform companies are engaging in protected expression in the narrow set of circumstances in which they enforce their community and content guidelines. Because humans at the companies used their editorial discretion to develop those guidelines, they reflect an expressive judgment about whether individual pieces of content conform to those guidelines. Second, the Justices signaled that when companies use machine-learning algorithms to enforce community and content guidelines, a lack of human input or oversight may mean the expression is more attenuated and less deserving of constitutional protection. Third, when companies curate user-generated content using non-content-based signals such as user behavior, it is unlikely to be considered expressive.

    • Platform Accountability & Governance

    • Platform Governance Laws & Regulations

    • The First Amendment

    • Analysis

  • SCOTUS Will Hear Texas Age-Gating Case

    July 2, 2024

    This morning, the Supreme Court granted cert in a case challenging the constitutionality of a Texas law that requires users to verify their ages before accessing websites where more than one-third of the available material is sexually explicit.

    • Age Assurance

    • Children's Privacy

    • Consumer Privacy

    • Data Protection

    • Platform Accountability & Governance

    • Platform Governance Laws & Regulations

    • Privacy Laws

    • Proposed U.S. Legislation

    • Social Media Privacy

    • The First Amendment

    • U.S. State Privacy Laws

    • Updates

  • Supreme Court Deals Blow to Big Tech’s Campaign to Immunize Itself from Regulation

    July 1, 2024

    The Supreme Court’s decision in the NetChoice cases is a huge loss for NetChoice. NetChoice's shoot-for-the-moon strategy failed miserably. The Big Tech trade group sought a pronouncement that platform design choices are wholly protected expression, but the Court refused to take the bait. Instead, the Court took the approach that EPIC advocated in its amicus brief: to the extent that the decision recognizes any protected editorial judgment for platforms’ decisions about whether and how to display content, it is narrowly confined to decisions that reflect a company’s judgements about the content, and does not include content-neutral design decisions.

    • Children's Privacy

    • Consumer Privacy

    • Data Protection

    • Platform Accountability & Governance

    • Platform Governance Laws & Regulations

    • Privacy Laws

    • Proposed U.S. Legislation

    • Social Media Privacy

    • The First Amendment

    • U.S. Privacy Laws

    • U.S. State Privacy Laws

    • Updates