The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed Texas to enforce its App Store Accountability Act (TASAA) while litigation over the law continues in lower courts. The order, issued Monday, denied an emergency stay request filed by a student advocacy organization and the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), a tech trade group whose members include Google, Meta, and Apple.
What the Law Requires
Signed into law in May 2025, TASAA mandates that app developers and app stores deploy age verification tools to prevent users under 18 from downloading apps without parental consent. The law also requires developers to assign age ratings to their applications, a provision the CCIA has characterized as burdensome.
A Contested Legal Path
The law has faced a turbulent legal journey. A Texas federal judge issued an injunction blocking enforcement in December, but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision last month, reinstating TASAA. The Fifth Circuit is scheduled to hear full arguments in August 2025.
The CCIA has stated it intends to argue that TASAA violates the First Amendment, framing mandatory age verification as an undue burden on access to information. “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,” the group said in a statement.
Youth advocates and some tech companies have also raised First Amendment concerns on behalf of minors, arguing the restrictions limit children’s free speech rights.
Support From State Attorneys General
On the other side, a bipartisan group of more than two dozen state attorneys general filed an amicus brief supporting TASAA. The brief argued that existing parental controls on platforms have proven ineffective at curbing child addiction to social media, citing both low adoption rates among parents and the controls’ limited practical impact.
The Supreme Court’s willingness to let TASAA stand during litigation follows a related precedent: the Court upheld a separate Texas age verification law last year that targets pornographic websites, signaling some judicial tolerance for state-level age-gating measures.
Security and privacy professionals should monitor the Fifth Circuit proceedings closely. If TASAA survives constitutional challenge, it could set a template for similar legislation in other states, with significant implications for app distribution, identity verification infrastructure, and user data handling practices.