Today, TechFreedom filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate a one-sentence order, issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, allowing H.B. 1126, a Mississippi law containing broad age-verification and parental-consent mandates for social media, to take immediate effect pending appeal. The case is Netchoice, LLC v. Fitch, No. 25A97 (U.S.)

“The Fifth Circuit made a category error,” said Corbin K. Barthold, Director of Appellate Litigation at TechFreedom. “The Supreme Court recently issued a decision on material obscene to minors, Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton (2025). Because the Fifth Circuit treated this new decision as a bright shiny object, it ignored the decisions that matter. In Packingham v. North Carolina (2017), the Supreme Court confirmed that adults—even convicted sex offenders—have a broad First Amendment right to access social media. In Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Assoc. (2011), the Court confirmed that minors have a broad First Amendment right to access new media—including material that might be violent or disturbing. These rulings confirm that Mississippi may not use H.B. 1126 to age-gate social media.”

“H.B. 1126’s age-verification and parental-consent requirements impose broad bans and burdens on the speech rights of adults and minors alike,” Barthold continued. “Allowing H.B. 1126 to take full effect, by way of the Fifth Circuit’s grave misapplication of Supreme Court precedent, would result in sweeping censorship. Only immediate action from the high court can prevent that injustice.”

“To add insult to injury, the Fifth Circuit gave no reason for its drastic order,” Barthold concluded. “Neither social media users, nor the websites that host them, should be left in the dark as to why their First Amendment rights count for so little. That said, it is not hard to surmise what happened. The Fifth Circuit mistook Free Speech Coalition as a green light to ignore Packingham and Brown. This was clear error. The Supreme Court needs to vacate the Fifth Circuit’s order and rescue free speech online.”

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TechFreedom is a nonprofit, nonpartisan technology policy think tank. We work to chart a path forward for policymakers towards a bright future where technology enhances freedom, and freedom enhances technology.

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