Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to pause a law that could lead to a ban of TikTok so his incoming administration can pursue a “negotiated resolution” to prevent a shutdown of the app.
“President Trump takes no position on the merits of the dispute. Instead, he urges the Court to stay the
statute’s effective date to allow his incoming Administration to pursue a negotiated resolution that
could prevent a nationwide shutdown of TikTok, thus preserving the First Amendment rights of tens of
millions of Americans, while also addressing the government’s national security concerns,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in a brief to the high court.
Congress overwhelmingly passed a law last year to force the Chinese parent of TikTok, ByteDance, to sell the social media platform or face a restriction on its availability in the United States.
Read Donald Trump’s TikTok brief.
TikTok has challenged the law, and the Supreme Court earlier this month agreed to hear the challenge on an expedited schedule. Oral arguments are set for Jan. 10, but opening briefs were due today, as well as friend of the court briefs.
TikTok has said that it faces being banned in the U.S. on January 19 unless the law is paused or sidelined.
In his first term, Trump sought to force a sale of TikTok via executive order. But that effort ultimately stalled in the courts. This year, even as a bipartisan group of lawmakers sought legislation to force a divestiture, Trump indicated his opposition to such a move. He has credited TikTok as a valuable platform in his reelection campaign.
In their brief, Trump’s attorneys argued that the new law “raise concerns about possible legislative encroachment on prerogatives of the Executive Branch under Article II” of the Constitution.
They noted that the law “dictates that the President must make a particular national-security determination as to TikTok alone, while granting the President a greater ‘degree of discretion and freedom from statutory restriction’ as to all other social-media platforms.”
They noted that the law mandates that the “President must exercise his power over foreign affairs
‘through an interagency process’ commanded by Congress, instead of exercising his sole discretion over
the deliberative processes of the Executive Branch.”
His legal team also noted that the deadline came one day before Trump is to take office.
His attorneys wrote that “the First Amendment implications of the federal government’s effective shuttering of a social-media platform used by 170 million Americans are sweeping and troubling. There are valid concerns that the Act may set a dangerous global precedent by exercising the extraordinary power to shut down an entire social-media platform based, in large part, on concerns about disfavored speech on that platform.”