President-elect Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to delay a ruling on the TikTok case and allow him to negotiate to prevent the ban.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a law that requires the sale or ban of TikTok in America.
It would go into effect on January 19, 2025.
Trump attorney John Sauer, who is also Trump’s pick for solicitor general, writes in the brief:
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. If achieved, such a resolution would obviate the need for this Court to decide extremely difficult questions on the current, highly expedited schedule.
President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, naming TikTok and ByteDance. The act “made it functionally illegal for ‘a foreign adversary controlled application’ to operate within the United States, or for any other entity to provide ‘internet hosting services to enable the distribution, maintenance, or updating’ of the app.”
The law targets all companies where “a citizen of an adversarial nation ‘directly or indirectly own[s] at least a 20 percent stake.’”
Sauer provides three arguments for the stay.
The first argument reminds SCOTUS that in previous cases, the Court “aptly cautioned against deciding ‘unprecedented’ and ‘very significant constitutional questions’ on a ‘highly expedited basis.'”
The second argument targets the D.C. Circuit’s justification for upholding the law: national security.
Sauer claims national security concerns fall under the Executive Branch (omitted citations):
First, the Act 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. Second, the Act 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. Third, the Act—due to its signing date— now imposes a deadline for divestment that falls one day before the incoming Administration takes power. Especially when viewed in combination, these unique features of the Act raise significant concerns about possible legislative encroachment upon the President’s prerogative to manage the Nation’s geopolitical, strategic relationships overall, and with one of our most significant counterparts, China, specifically. This is an area where the Nation must “speak … with one voice,” and “[t]hat voice must be the President’s.”
The third argument contains the First Amendment. I think this should have been the first argument, but I digress.
“Third, 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,” Sauer continues. “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.”
Trump wanted to shut down TikTok during his first administration.
However, Trump joined the platform during the 2024 campaign and quickly gained 14.7 million followers.
Melania Trump told Fox & Friends that Barron, her son with Trump, advised him to engage with people his age.
The 18-year-old told Trump who he needed “to contact and to talk to.”
Trump and VP-elect JD Vance went on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Trump also went on podcasts with Theo Von, Andrew Schulz, Patrick Bet-David, and Logan Paul.
Trump even brought popular younger influencers on stage at his rallies.
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