Tenn. AG Urges Court to Deny Preliminary Injunction After Ruling in Similar Fla. Case
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti (R) urged the U.S. District Court of Middle Tennessee on Friday to deny NetChoice’s request for a preliminary injunction on a bill requiring age verification to access social media accounts following the decision in CCIA & NetChoice v. Uthmeier (see 2503170061). NetChoice responded Tuesday, asking the court to grant the preliminary injunction and enjoin the AG from enforcing HB-1891, as the ruling in the Uthmeier case “has no bearing here.”
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Skrmetti argued Friday that the two cases were similar. “Like this case, Uthmeier involves a challenge to a state law imposing age-verification and parental-consent requirements on social-media platforms,” he said. “And as here, NetChoice (an unregulated trade association) demanded a universal preliminary injunction via the disfavored overbreadth doctrine. The Uthmeier court denied that extraordinary relief, recognizing that NetChoice “failed to produce the evidence needed” to establish its members’ purported injuries. This Court should do the same.”
Case 24-01191 started in October when NetChoice sued the attorney general over privacy and First Amendment concerns about HB-1891, which required social media companies to verify the age of account holders and gain parental consent before users younger than 18 could open accounts (see 2501170070). NetChoice then filed a renewed motion for injunction on Jan. 16 and asked for a TRO (see 2501060056), which the court denied on Feb. 14 (see 2502180051).