President-elect Donald Trump on Friday asked the Supreme Court to halt implementation of a law banning TikTok in the United States effective January 19 if the app is not sold by its Chinese parent company.
The court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case on January 10.
He added, “President Trump takes no position on the merits of this dispute.” Dr. wrote. John SawyerTrump’s lawyer who is also the president-elect’s choice for U.S. attorney general. “Instead, it respectfully requests that the Court consider postponing the January 19, 2025 divestment deadline while it considers the merits of this case, thereby allowing the incoming administration of President Trump the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the issues raised in the case.” “The case.”
The law is at the heart of the case The Protecting Americans from Controlled Apps from Foreign Adversaries Act, a bipartisan measure passed by Congress and then signed into law by President Joe Biden in April.
TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, is required by law to sell the platform to an American company or face a ban.
Earlier this month, the court decided to hear the case and accelerated the schedule for briefing and oral arguments. However, the court opposed TikTok’s request to temporarily halt implementation of the ban, leaving it only nine days after oral arguments to issue an opinion or block the law indefinitely.
Trump, who tried to ban TikTok in 2020 but was blocked by the courts, suggested in a court filing on Friday that he could negotiate a political solution to the issue before the court needed to issue a ruling.
“Only President Trump has the savvy deal-making experience, electoral mandate, and political will to negotiate a solution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the government — concerns that President Trump himself has acknowledged,” Sawyer wrote.
Trump previously met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in December, hours after the president-elect expressed his admiration for the app, a reversal of his opposition to it four years ago.
The Justice Department and TikTok also filed briefs in the case on Friday, essentially rehashing the arguments they made before the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
That court upheld the law, concluding that the government’s national security justifications for blocking the app, including concerns that the Chinese government could access data about American users and manipulate content on the app, were legitimate.
Chinese government officials have consistently rejected the argument that TikTok poses a threat to US national security.
In its court filing on Friday, the Justice Department defended the law, citing national security concerns that the Chinese government could influence the company.
TikTok, meanwhile, opposed the law, saying in its brief that banning the app would violate free speech rights protected under the First Amendment.
