JUNE 11, 2026 – Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, a youth-led nonprofit that promotes civic engagement, has filed an emergency request to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to vacate a recent Fifth Circuit decision under which an unconstitutional Texas law limiting online speech will go into effect.
Last year, Texas passed the so-called App Store Accountability Act, which prohibits minors from downloading any apps, or paid content within apps, without parental consent. SEAT, represented by attorneys at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, challenged the act under the First Amendment and a federal judge entered a preliminary injunction in December.
However, the Fifth Circuit recently took the extraordinary step of staying that injunction while it reviews the judge's order. That means that the members of SEAT, who use apps as an integral part of their communications and advocacy, face irreparable deprivations of their First Amendment rights.
SEAT is asking the Supreme Court to vacate the Fifth Circuit's stay and restore the status quo.
Said Cameron Samuels, executive director of SEAT: "Age-verification may be a nuisance for some, but it's a concrete barrier for teens who might be trying to access life-saving resources, educational material, or utilities for daily life. We must prepare our youngest generation for responsible digital citizenship, but age-verification imposes restrictions that hinder youth development. This kind of age-verification opens doors for further limiting the rights and damaging the privacy of all internet users. The rights guaranteed by our Constitution apply to all of us, including youth, and the Supreme Court should know this."
SEAT is represented in this case by Ambika Kumar, Adam Sieff, James Sigel, David Gossett, Abigail Everdell, Lexie Perloff-Giles, Haley Zoffer, and Celyra Myers.
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Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is an AmLaw 100 law firm with more than 600 lawyers representing clients based throughout the United States and around the world. The firm is widely regarded as having the leading First Amendment litigation team in the country. Learn more at dwt.com.