The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has vacated a lower court’s decision denying NetChoice’s request for a preliminary injunction against Tennessee’s law requiring age verification and parental consent for minors to create social media accounts.
The ruling, released Friday in the case NetChoice, LLC v. Skrmetti, does not determine whether Tennessee’s Protecting Children from Social Media Act is constitutional. Instead, the three-judge panel found that the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee applied the wrong standard when it concluded NetChoice had not demonstrated irreparable harm and sent the case back to the lower court for further consideration.
The Sixth Circuit explained in its ruling that companies can suffer irreparable harm from compliance costs they cannot recover, and that the threat of losing or limiting First Amendment rights can also count as irreparable harm, even before the law is actually enforced.
“We cannot agree with the district court’s survey of NetChoice’s claimed irreparable harm. The kinds of harm asserted by NetChoice meet our threshold requirement of irreparability. And while the asserted ‘injury’ must be both certain and immediate, not ‘speculative or theoretical,’ it need not be already underway before a movant may seek preliminary relief, particularly when the alleged harm takes the form of deterred or chilled speech,” Judge Alice M. Batchelder wrote for the majority.
However, the court emphasized that establishing irreparable harm is only one part of the preliminary injunction analysis. The district court must still consider NetChoice’s likelihood of success on its constitutional claims, the balance of equities, and the public interest.
NetChoice celebrated the procedural victory in a press release.
“Tennesseans should not be forced to hand over their private information simply to access news, watch videos, connect with friends or engage in lawful speech online,” NetChoice Litigation Center Director Paul Taske said.
"We are pleased the Sixth Circuit recognized the serious harms posed by Tennessee's law," said Paul Taske, Director of the NetChoice Litigation Center, after the court revived NetChoice's challenge to Tennessee's Digital ID mandate and sent the case back to district court.… pic.twitter.com/tOnVnA9bpS
— NetChoice (@NetChoice) August 30, 2026
“We are pleased the Sixth Circuit recognized the serious harms posed by Tennessee’s law, and we look forward to defending free speech, privacy and parental rights as our case returns to district court,” Taske added.
The Protecting Children from Social Media Act, signed into law by Governor Bill Lee in 2024, requires social media companies to verify the age of prospective account holders and obtain parental consent before allowing minors to become account holders. It also requires platforms to provide parents with tools to supervise and manage their children’s accounts.
NetChoice sued Tennessee in October 2024, arguing the law violates the First Amendment. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has defended the law, arguing that it regulates harmful conduct rather than speech and provides parents with tools to protect their children online.
A federal district judge initially denied NetChoice’s request for a preliminary injunction in June 2025, finding the company had not shown an imminent threat of irreparable harm.
The Sixth Circuit’s Friday ruling returns NetChoice’s preliminary injunction question to that court for further proceedings.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
