Fifth Circuit to Rehear Texas SCOPE Act Challenge En Banc, Vacating Panel Opinion That Kept Filtering Mandate Blocked
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on October 28 granted rehearing en banc in the consolidated challenges to Texas's SCOPE Act (Nos. 24-50721 and 25-50096). After a judge requested a poll, a majority of the circuit judges in regular active service voted in favor; under Fifth Circuit Rule 41.3, the three-judge panel opinion of July 24, 2026 (184 F.4th 420) is vacated. The Clerk will set a supplemental briefing schedule, and oral argument will be held on a date to be fixed.
The SCOPE Act — the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act, enacted as Texas House Bill 18 and effective September 1, 2024 — requires digital service providers to monitor and filter content for known minors (covering categories such as material promoting suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, substance abuse, and bullying), restricts targeted advertising, and imposes age-verification duties. The Computer & Communications Industry Association and NetChoice sued Attorney General Ken Paxton on behalf of the tech industry, while Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT) and others challenged the law separately.
The vacated panel opinion had kept the preliminary injunction against the monitoring-and-filtering mandate in place as to the industry groups, holding it likely preempted by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act; it vacated the injunction as to the student plaintiffs for lack of standing; and it treated the age-verification challenge as foreclosed by the Supreme Court's decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. En banc rehearing wipes those conclusions away for the full court to decide anew.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于路易斯安那州 New Orleans 的第五巡回上诉法院 John Minor Wisdom 法院大楼。CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The John Minor Wisdom U.S. Courthouse in New Orleans, home of the Fifth Circuit. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
