Parents, you may be asked to give permission for a phone download soon. A new ruling from the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), announced on Monday, July 6, enforces strict app guidelines for Texas minors.<\/p>\n
Justice Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr., issued two short<\/a> orders<\/a> denying separate requests to temporarily reinstate orders issued by a federal judge in Austin that barred the state from implementing the Texas App Store Accountability Act (SB 2420), according to SCOTUSBlog.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n What is Texas SB 2420?<\/p>\n SB 2420<\/a> states that when a resident creates an account with an app store, the owner of the app store verifies the resident’s age. It then rules that if the resident is a minor, the account must be affiliated with the minor’s parent or guardian. Consent must be obtained from the parent or guardian before the minor can download an app, purchase an app, or make a purchase in or while using an app, per the bill.<\/p>\n Is SB 2420 blocked in Texas?<\/p>\n After many attempts, no. The bill went into effect on January 1, 2026.\u00a0It\u00a0drew backlash from some locals and activist groups, including Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT<\/a>), described as a movement of young people seeking greater visibility in lawmaking. The organization sued, alleging that it had violated the youth’s First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n Timeline<\/p>\n So how did we get here? The bill passed in May 2025. Then, Federal District Court Judge Robert Pitman blocked <\/a>enforcement of the law\u00a0in December 2025, claiming it likely violates the First Amendment. That same month, Attorney General Ken\u00a0Paxton appealed.<\/a><\/p>\n SEAT also secured a preliminary order blocking enforcement of the law,\u00a0court documents show<\/a>. However, the Fifth Circuit ruled in early June 2026 to stay or “lift the injunction that prevented the Texas law from taking effect,” per the CCIA.<\/p>\n In an emergency application filed on Wednesday, June 10, SEAT asked the court to vacate the Fifth Circuit’s stay. Justice\u00a0Alito denied<\/a> it on Monday, July 6.<\/p>\n The other application to vacate the stay came from the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), a nonprofit trade association based in Washington, D.C., which represents a broad cross-section of communications and technology firms, per its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n “No State has ever required its citizens to prove their age before reading\u00a0a newspaper, entering a bookstore, or even accessing the internet,” the CCIA wrote in its emergency application<\/a>. “Texas Senate Bill 2420 (“SB2420” or “the Act”) does exactly that-for every mobile app on every mobile phone. Under SB2420, before a Texan may download the Wall Street Journal-or even a weather app or calculator-he must first verify his age.”<\/p>\n The CCIA is also suing the state of Texas, “arguing its App Store law would impose an unconstitutional, sweeping age-verification, parental consent, and compelled speech regime on both app stores and app developers,” according to a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n The denials allow Texas to continue enforcing its app store law “until a lower court can fully hear and decide whether to strike SB2420 for good.” An expedited hearing is expected in August, per the CCIA.<\/p>\n Sign up for Afternoon Headlines, MySA’s free newsletter bringing you San Antonio’s top stories of the day.<\/a><\/p>\n This article originally published at Texas kids will need parental consent to download apps. Here’s why<\/a>.<\/p>\n