Written by: Haim Ravia, Dotan Hammer
In Students Engaged in Advancing Texas v. Paxton, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted Texas a stay pending appeal of universal preliminary injunctions that a district court had entered against Senate Bill 2420, the App Store Accountability Act (codified at chapter 121 of the Texas Business & Commerce Code).
SB2420 is designed to help parents supervise children’s app downloads and in-app purchases by requiring age verification, parental consent, and the display of age ratings and content information. The district court had applied strict scrutiny and enjoined the Act statewide; the Fifth Circuit reversed, concluding that Texas had made a strong showing it is likely to succeed on the merits.
The court reasoned that app-store listings propose commercial transactions, so the Act is at most subject to intermediate scrutiny review rather than strict scrutiny review, and that it likely survives that standard as a reasonable fit advancing the state’s substantial interest in protecting children’s data, safety, and privacy. It further found the district court likely erred in its treatment of the Act’s exceptions and severability clause and in concluding that certain terms were unconstitutionally vague. Finally, it held that the universal injunctions likely exceeded the bounds of equitable authority under Trump v. CASA, such that any relief should be limited to the named plaintiffs and identified association members.
Click here to read the Fifth Circuit’s order in Students Engaged in Advancing Texas v. Paxton.
