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CV NEWS FEED // Three legal cases with the potential to affect the physical and mental health of young people under 18 years old are set to soon be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a recent report from Angelus News.
The first case deals with pornography access in Texas. Under a 2023 law, consumers must verify that they are over 18 years old before pornography distributors can send them the explicit content.
As CatholicVote reported in September 2023, the law was struck down by a federal judge for violating adults’ First Amendment free speech rights.
“People will be particularly concerned about accessing controversial speech when the state government can log and track that access,” Senior District Court Judge David Ezra wrote at the time. “By verifying information through government identification, the law will allow the government to peer into the most intimate and personal aspects of people’s lives.”
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with the lower court’s ruling, and the case has now made its way to the Supreme Court.
The second case addresses Tennessee’s ban on puberty blockers and transgender surgeries for minors, which has been challenged by teens with gender dysphoria, their families, and the Department of Justice.
“[T]he Department of Justice contended that the Tennessee law infringes on the Constitution’s equal protection clause,” CatholicVote reported in June. “It argued that the law discriminates by prohibiting medical treatments exclusively if they’re for gender dysphoria while allowing the same treatments for other conditions, such as precocious puberty.”
According to Angelus News, the third case before the Supreme Court deals with flavored e-cigarettes for minors. The lawsuit ensued when the Food and Drug Administration blocked manufacturers from marketing the flavored e-cigarettes, saying that they encourage high schoolers and middle schoolers to become addicted to nicotine.
AP News reported that “In 2020, nearly 20% of high school students and almost 5% of middle-school students used e-cigarettes, and almost all of those kids used flavored products.”
“The agency says companies were blocked because they couldn’t show the possible benefits for adult smokers outweighed the risk of underage use. The companies say they had prepared detailed plans to avoid appealing to young people,” AP News added.
Angelus News reported that lower courts’ decisions have varied and it is now up to the Supreme Court to make the final decision.
