U.S. President-elect Donald Trump attends Turning Level USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., December 22, 2024.
Cheney Orr | Reuters
President-elect Donald Trump on Friday requested the Supreme Courtroom to pause implementation of a legislation that might ban TikTok within the U.S. on Jan. 19 if the app just isn’t offered by its Chinese language mum or dad firm.
The court docket is because of hear arguments within the case on Jan. 10.
“President Trump takes no place on the underlying deserves of this dispute,” wrote D. John Sauer, Trump’s lawyer who can be the president-elect’s decide for U.S. solicitor common. “As an alternative, he respectfully requests that the Courtroom take into account staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, whereas it considers the deserves of this case, thus allowing President Trump’s incoming Administration the chance to pursue a political decision of the questions at challenge within the case.”
The legislation on the coronary heart of the go well with is the Defending Individuals from International Adversary Managed Functions Act, a bipartisan measure handed by Congress and subsequently signed into legislation by President Joe Biden in April.
The legislation would require TikTok’s Chinese language proprietor, ByteDance, to promote the platform to an American firm or face a ban.
Earlier this month, the court docket determined to listen to the case and fast-tracked the schedule for briefing and oral arguments. Nevertheless, the court docket punted on TikTok’s request to pause implementation of the ban, leaving simply 9 days after oral arguments for it to challenge an opinion or indefinitely block the legislation.
Trump, who tried to ban TikTok in 2020 however was blocked by the courts, prompt in Friday’s court docket submitting that he may negotiate a political decision to the matter earlier than the court docket must rule.
“President Trump alone possesses the consummate dealmaking experience, the electoral mandate, and the political will to barter a decision to avoid wasting the platform whereas addressing the nationwide safety issues expressed by the Authorities—issues which President Trump himself has acknowledged,” Sauer wrote.
Trump beforehand met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in December, hours after the president-elect expressed he had a “heat spot” for the app, a reversal from his opposition to it 4 years in the past.
The Justice Division and TikTok additionally submitted briefs within the case on Friday, primarily rehashing arguments they made earlier than the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
That court docket upheld the legislation, concluding that the federal government’s nationwide safety justifications for banning the app, together with issues that the Chinese language authorities may entry information about American customers and manipulate content material on the app, have been reliable.
Chinese language authorities officers have persistently rejected the argument that TikTok is a risk to U.S. nationwide safety.
In its court docket submitting Friday, the Justice Division defended the legislation, citing nationwide safety issues that the Chinese language authorities may affect the corporate.
TikTok, in the meantime, opposed the legislation, saying in its transient that banning the app would violate free speech rights protected beneath the First Modification.
