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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is fighting to enforce a Texas law that he says prevents the pornography industry from targeting children with harmful content.

In the year Passed in 2023 and signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, the law requires sex sites to verify users’ age with official documents such as a driver’s license or government-issued ID, punishing them for not implementing age verification.

Meanwhile, the self-proclaimed Free Speech Coalition argues that the Texas law restricts their First Amendment rights and puts too much pressure on Texas adults to stop using their content.

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PornHub, the nation’s most popular adult content site, went so far as to block access to its site for all users in Texas after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law should be upheld.

Finally, the two parties met face to face today on Wednesday to present their case to the Supreme Court.

For its part, the nation’s highest court appeared united in agreeing with Paxton’s argument that states have a vested interest in limiting children’s access to pornographic content. Some justices, however, still think the Texas law’s restrictions are too broad and could affect other areas of free speech.

The question now before the court is whether the Texas law should be subject to “rational basis” or “strict scrutiny” review, the latter of which requires Texas to meet the narrowest requirements for maintaining its age-verification requirement.

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Seen at the US Supreme Court on November 15, 2023 in Washington. (AP Photo/Maryam Zuhaib)

Either way the court rules will affect not only the Texas law, but more than a dozen other sex site age verification laws in states across the country.

In an interview with Fox News Digital after the hearing, Paxton said he feels confident the Supreme Court will rule in Texas’ favor.

“Hearing the questions and seeing the opinions of the judiciary, I feel very optimistic, I think we will win this,” he said. “I feel pretty good about it. I think most of the justices will come down on the right side.”

“When the other side presented their arguments, they acknowledged that we have an interest in protecting minors,” he continued. They said the way we’re doing it is too burdensome on adults, and so they made other recommendations, those recommendations don’t really work and that’s why they don’t require age verification. Because it really works and affects their bottom line.”

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The exterior of the Texas State Capitol is seen on September 05, 2023 in Austin, Texas. The Senate impeachment trial of former Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton began today with Lt. Dan Patrick presiding over the trial. Paxton faces multiple charges including bribery, making false statements and abuse of public trust. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

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Responding to criticism that the law could infringe on free speech, Paxton said: “Look, I’m a big free speech advocate. I see very few restrictions on speaking. However, we recognize that we must protect children of all kinds. We don’t allow them to sign contracts, we don’t allow them to get married until they turn 18, we don’t allow them to be given alcohol, we don’t allow them to take tobacco, we have. Protected children, it has been (throughout) our history.

“If you look in developed countries or anywhere else, children are protected,” he said. “It’s my job to enforce the laws of Texas. I’m very comfortable with this opportunity to protect our children from having this put in front of them.”