Several members of Congress – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Representative Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) – submitted a letter agreeing that ' will not survive the TikTok ban. First Amendment inquiry.” They agreed with TikTok that the law is “unlawful.”
Lawmakers' “principled justification” of the ban — “preventing secret content manipulation by the Chinese government” — masked a “desire” to control TikTok content, they said. Further, this could be achieved through a less restrictive alternative, they said, a position TikTok has long advocated.
However, Attorney General Merrick Garland defended the law and urged SCOTUS to maintain a sharp focus on whether a forced sale of TikTok, which would seemingly allow the app to continue operating without impacting American freedom of expression, would violate is with the First Amendment. If the court agrees that the law survives strict scrutiny, TikTok could still face an abrupt shutdown in January.
The Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for January 10. TikTok and content creators who separately sued to block the law have asked to split their arguments so the court can separately weigh “different perspectives” in deciding how to approach the law. First amendment question.
In its own letter, TikTok asked SCOTUS to strike down the parts of the law singling out TikTok or “at the very least” explain to Congress that “it needed to do a much better job addressing the law's limitations.” fit or justify why the only viable solution was to ban petitioners from using TikTok.”
But that may not be necessary if Trump prevails. Trump told the court that TikTok was a key platform for his presidential campaign and that he should be the one to decide whether TikTok should remain in the US – and not the Supreme Court.
“As the new Chief Executive, President Trump has a particularly strong interest in and responsibility for these national security and foreign policy issues, and he is the right constitutional actor to resolve the dispute through political means,” he said. Trump in his letter.
