Supreme Court keeps Texas app age-verification law in place while case continues

On July 6, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court denied emergency requests that asked it to stop Texas from enforcing the state’s app age-verification and parental-consent requirements for minors.

The practical result: Texas’s rules remain in place for now while the underlying constitutional challenge continues in federal court. This is a procedural outcome (a status-quo preservation), not a final ruling that the law is constitutional.

What Texas’s “App Store Accountability Act” requires

Texas’s law—codified in Chapter 121 of the Texas Business & Commerce Code (the “App Store Accountability Act,” SB 2420)—targets how app stores verify age and handle purchases by minors.

At a high level, it requires app stores operating in Texas to:

• Verify a user’s age category using a “commercially reasonable” method.
• Use specific age categories for minors. The law divides users under 18 into categories, including “child” (under 13), “younger teenager” (13 to under 16), and “older teenager” (16 to under 18).
• Require parent/guardian involvement for non-adult accounts. If a user is not categorized as an adult, the app store must require that the minor’s account be affiliated with a parent account using methods intended to verify the parent account belongs to an adult with authority over the minor.
• Block downloads and in-app purchases without that parental-consent setup. Through the parent account affiliation, the store must obtain consent before a minor can download apps, purchase apps, or make purchases in or using an app.

What the Supreme Court did on July 6, 2026

The Supreme Court’s emergency-docket actions declined to vacate a stay in two related matters, leaving the existing enforcement posture in place while litigation proceeds.

• No. 25A1389 (Students Engaged in Advancing Texas v. Paxton)
• No. 25A1390 (Computer & Communications Industry Association v. Paxton)

What this does—and does not—mean legally

This does not mean the Supreme Court decided that Texas’s law is constitutional. Emergency-docket denials generally keep the current situation in place while a case moves through the normal appeals/merits process.

So for Texas, the immediate effect is that the app age-verification and parental-consent gate is expected to continue during this phase of the challenge.

Who is affected right now

• Texas minors and families: the app-store compliance steps tied to age-category verification and parental-consent requirements continue while the case proceeds.
• App stores and platforms operating in Texas: they face continued pressure to meet the statute’s age-verification and parental-consent requirements during the litigation.

What to watch next

The key next developments are decisions in the lower-court litigation that address the underlying constitutional arguments. Those merits rulings—not the emergency-docket denials—are what could ultimately change whether Texas can enforce the law.

Sources

• Supreme Court docket in 25A1389
• Texas statute text (Chapter 121)
• AP News reporting on what the denial means in practice