Minnesota's ban on "nudification" tools, the first law of its kind in the United States, and one that is written so broadly it has major First Amendment violation concerns, took effect Saturday after U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank denied xAI's request for a temporary block.
The company, which owns the X platform, sued Attorney General Keith Ellison on July 27 to stop enforcement of House File 1606, and Reclaim The Net covered the complaint when it was filed so you can get the full details in that story.
xAI filed its request "on July 29, 2026, nearly three months after the law was signed, and only three days before the law is set to take effect," Judge Frank wrote, and he denied the restraining order based on that timing, rather than on the merits. "Such a delay in bringing the action and the motion suggests that harm is not immediate," Frank said.
Thankfully, the company's First Amendment claims are still before the court; this weekend's ruling only settled the question of timing and urgency. Frank converted the emergency filing into a motion for a preliminary injunction to be heard at a later date this month.
The law, formally codified as Minnesota Statutes section 325E.91, bans anyone who owns or runs a website, application, software, program or another service from allowing a user to "access, download, or use" it "to nudify an image or video." It also bans nudifying an image on a user's behalf, even with their consent. Going further into questionable constitutionality, advertising such a service is banned too.
What's also interesting is that the prohibitions "do not apply" when a service "requires the technical skill of a user" to do the nudifying. That means Photoshopping someone in the nude stays legal. The ban is focused on the toolmaker and not the user who prompts the creation of such an image or spreads it.
Ellison can seek civil penalties of up to $500,000 for each violation, and a person depicted can sue separately for triple damages, punitive damages and attorneys' fees.
"I am extremely proud to be defending this law, and along with it, the dignity of the people of Minnesota," Ellison said in comments reported by KSTP. "These nudification apps, including Grok Imagine, have been used to generate child sexual abuse materials and harass people in the vilest ways imaginable."
Judge Frank directed both sides to arrange an agreement preserving the status quo so the motion can be heard on a regular schedule. After they failed to agree, he set one. Ellison must respond by August 12, xAI will reply by August 17, and the hearing is set for August 19 at the federal courthouse in St. Paul.
