Montana
Montana Age Verification Law: SB 544 and the 2025 Amendment Explained
Independently fact-checked against primary sources (last audited August 14, 2026). · 2 primary sources cited on this page. How we verify our legal content
Montana's age-verification law began in 2023 as an Attorney General-enforceable statute, but a 2025 amendment narrowed it to private civil suits only. That narrowing is also why the one federal case testing the law was dismissed, not because a court ruled the law unconstitutional.
What Montana's Age-Verification Law Requires
Montana Code Annotated §30-14-159 requires a commercial entity that publishes material harmful to minors on an internet website to use reasonable age-verification methods to confirm a visitor is 18 or older. The section was originally enacted by Senate Bill 544 in the 2023 legislative session, then amended in 2025 by Chapter 199, Laws of 2025.
That 2025 amendment did not touch the underlying age-verification duty. What it changed was who can enforce it: the statute's text now reads, in relevant part, "This section may only be enforced by individuals claiming damages pursuant to subsection (3)." Before the amendment, Montana's Attorney General had a role in enforcing the law; after it, only a private individual bringing a damages claim can.
Why the Federal Challenge Was Dismissed, and Why That Is Not the Same as Being Upheld
Free Speech Coalition, Inc. and other plaintiffs sued Montana's Attorney General over the law in Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Knudsen, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana. In October 2024 the presiding judge denied the state's motion to dismiss as to the First Amendment claims, granting it only on a separate dormant Commerce Clause count, and applied strict scrutiny to the law at that stage of the case. That ruling came eight months before the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2025 decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, which held that intermediate scrutiny, not strict scrutiny, governs this category of age-verification law. The October 2024 strict-scrutiny analysis is accordingly no longer the controlling standard on that question, even though the order itself was never vacated.
The case was ultimately dismissed in August 2025, but on standing grounds, not because a court reached and rejected the plaintiffs' First Amendment claims. After the 2025 amendment removed the Attorney General's authority to initiate enforcement actions, the court found that even an injunction against the Attorney General would do nothing to prevent private persons from suing under the Act, so it could not redress the plaintiffs' alleged injuries and they lacked standing. That is a procedural dismissal, not a ruling that Montana's law survives constitutional scrutiny on the merits.
Enforcement Today: Private Damages Suits Only
Montana's Attorney General currently has no authority to bring an enforcement action under §30-14-159. The only path to enforcing the law is a private individual bringing a civil claim for damages under subsection (3) of the statute. This is the same structural position Kentucky's law occupies, except Kentucky's statute was written that way from the start; Montana's law reached this point through the 2025 amendment.
The Law Requires Verification, Not a Ban
Montana's statute requires covered sites to verify a visitor's age before granting access to material harmful to minors. It does not make that material illegal for a verified adult to view. Whether a given site builds a verification system or chooses to block Montana traffic instead is a business decision made by that company, not something Montana's law requires.
Related Resources
- Age Verification Laws by State
- Kentucky Age Verification Law
- Texas Age Verification Law
- Utah Age Verification Law
Last updated: 2026-08-13.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is porn banned in Montana?
No. Montana's law requires covered websites to verify a visitor's age before granting access to material harmful to minors; it does not prohibit adults from viewing that material once verified.
Can Montana's Attorney General sue a noncompliant website?
No, not anymore. A 2025 amendment removed the Attorney General's enforcement authority. The law can now be enforced only through a private civil action for damages.
Did a court strike down Montana's age-verification law?
No. Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Knudsen was dismissed in August 2025 for lack of standing, because an injunction against the Attorney General would not have stopped private lawsuits under the Act. No court has ruled on the merits of Montana's law under the current, intermediate-scrutiny standard.
What standard of review applies to Montana's law?
An October 2024 order in the Knudsen case applied strict scrutiny, but that predates the Supreme Court's June 2025 decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, which held intermediate scrutiny is the correct standard for this category of law.
Who can sue over a violation of Montana's law?
Only a private individual claiming damages, under subsection (3) of Mont. Code Ann. §30-14-159. The Attorney General no longer has enforcement authority.
Updates
Corrected the description of Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Knudsen: the court dismissed for lack of standing because an injunction against the Attorney General could not stop private lawsuits under the Act, not because no state enforcer was left to sue.
Clarified that the October 2024 federal court order denied Montana's motion to dismiss as to the First Amendment claims while granting it on a separate Commerce Clause count.
Independently fact-checked against the cited primary sources
The Law Behind This Article
This article rests on the statutory provisions below, held in our own legal record and retrieved from the official source. Tap a section to read the operative text.
Montana Code Annotated, Title 30
§ 30-14-159Publishing And Distribution Of Material Harmful To Minors -- Age Verification -- Requirements -- Penalties -- Exceptions -- Reporting -- DefinitionsIn forcecited in 2 of our articles
30-14-159. Publishing and distribution of material harmful to minors -- age verification -- requirements -- penalties -- exceptions -- reporting -- definitions. (1) A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material harmful to minors on the internet from a website that contains a substantial portion of the material must be held liable if the entity fails to perform reasonable age verification methods to verify the age of individuals attempting to access the material. (2) A commercial entity or third party that performs the required age verification may not retain any identifying information of the individual after access has been granted to the material. (3) (a) A commercial entity that is found to have violated this section is liable to an individual for damages resulting from a minor accessing the material, including court costs and reasonable attorney fees as ordered by the court.
Official text (excerpt) · last checked 2026-09-03 · Read the full text in our law library · Verify at mca.legmt.gov
Cited in 1 court opinions in our collectionLatest citing opinion in our collection: 2025
Opinions citing this section in our collection:
- Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Knudsen (District Court, D. Montana 2025)“…access the material.” $.B. 544 (Mont. 2023) (codified at Mont. Code Ann. § 30-14-159) (“Age Verification Act” or the “Act”).…”
Identified automatically from the court opinions citing this section — not a ranking of which case controls.
Also relied on in: Montana Pornography Laws (2026): No General Obscenity Ban
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Sources and References
- Mont. Code Ann. §30-14-159(mca.legmt.gov).gov
- Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, 606 U.S. 461 (2025), Opinion of the Court(supremecourt.gov).gov
- Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Knudsen, No. 9:24-cv-00067-DWM (D. Mont. Oct. 22, 2024), Opinion and Order on Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 22)(storage.courtlistener.com)