District Attorneys Drop Bid To Save ‘Age Verification’ Law

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana's district attorneys are dropping their bid to preserve a Louisiana criminal law that requires online booksellers, publishers and other website owners to electronically verify customers' ages before providing access to material that could be deemed harmful to children.

A court filing Monday says the district attorneys are no longer contesting the American Civil Liberties Union's efforts to have the 2015 statute declared unconstitutional. The filing says they're engaging in settlement talks to resolve the case and reach an agreement on legal fees and court costs.

A federal judge blocked enforcement of the 2015 law in April, saying its "vagueness" would cause a "chill on protected speech."

District attorneys from the state's 42 judicial districts opposed the lawsuit that the ACLU on behalf of two New Orleans bookstores and other plaintiffs.

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