Ex Parte Odom (Tex. Ct. App. 2018)

Ex Parte Odom, No. 01-18- 00169- CR (Tex. Ct. App. 2018)

Nature of Case: Appellant was indicted in Texas state court for failing to update his internet identifiers. Pretrial, Appellant sought from the trial court a writ of habeas corpus, asserting that the identifier statute was not constitutional on First Amendment grounds. The trial court denied the writ, and Appellant then sought review.

Holding:  Court of Appeals of Texas held that the statute was not unconstitutional on First Amendmend grounds: it was subject to intermediate scrutiny, was not overbroad, did not impermissibly infringe on the right to anonymous speech, and did not operate as a prior restraint on speech.