Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito turned heads during a First Amendment case on Wednesday when he asked an absurd, and unexpected, question of the case’s lawyer.
The conservative Supreme Court justice pointedly asked aloud whether or not PornHub – a Canadian-owned internet pornography video-sharing website – carries cultural articles and newsworthy interviews similar to ‘the old Playboy magazine.’
The shocking query came as the US Supreme Court hears a challenge to a 2023 Texas law mandating that adult sites verify the age of their users.
However, an adult entertainment industry trade group and several content creators, have challenged the law by arguing the requirement violates the First Amendment.
During the Wednesday hearing, Alito asked attorney Derek Shaffer, who is representing the entertainment trade group, to explain some of the ‘most popular porn sites.’
‘One of the parties here is the owner of Pornhub,’ Alito, 74, probed Shaffer, to which he agreed.
Alito continued: ‘What percentage of the material on that [website] is not obscene as to children?’
Shaffer then scrambled to answer before he acknowledged that even to ‘the youngest minors’ most of the content is obscene, ‘and that is how we read the law,’ he said.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito (pictured) turned heads during a First Amendment case on Wednesday when he asked an absurd, and unexpected, question of the case’s lawyer
The conservative Supreme Court justice pointedly asked aloud whether or not PornHub – a Canadian-owned internet pornography video-sharing website – carries cultural content similar to ‘the old Playboy magazine’
‘But is it like the old Playboy magazine?’ the high court judge asked, hearkening back to the old joke about men picking up the ‘lifestyle’ magazines for the articles, rather than the explicit content.
‘You have essays there by the modern-day equivalent of Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr.?’ Alito asked.
‘Not in that sense,’ Shaffer admitted, ‘but in the sense [that] you have sexual wellness posts about women recovering from hysterectomies and how they can enjoy sex. That’s on there. Discussions of age verification proposals and where the industry lines up as far as what they think should be legislated and what should not.’
The entire exchange was captured on a now viral clip that includes a previous exchange between a fellow conservative, Justice Neil Gorsuch who grilled Shaffer about the percentage of his clients’ material that ‘would be considered obscene for minors.’
To which the plaintiff’s attorney argued that ‘it’s tough to arrive at that calculation’ before later suggesting that at least 70 percent of the content in question was inappropriate for kids.
At another point during oral arguments, Alito scoffed at Shaffer’s suggestion that parents be more proactive in monitoring and restricting their children’s online habits.
‘One of the parties here is the owner of Pornhub,’ Alito, 74, probed Shaffer, to which he agreed. Alito continued: ‘What percentage of the material on that [website] is not obscene as to children?’
‘Do you know a lot of parents who are more tech-savvy than their 15-year-old children?’ Alito quipped.
The case, Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, will be decided sometime before the end of June.
Earlier this year, the Texas state law was upheld by the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that governments have a compelling interest in preventing youngsters from viewing porn.