CNN
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President-elect Donald Trump urged the Supreme Court to halt a controversial TikTok ban set to take effect next month, telling the justices in a court filing Friday that a delay would allow his administration to “pursue a negotiated resolution.”
Trump’s request to delay implementation of the ban puts him at odds with the Biden administration, which defended the law in its own brief Friday, warning of “serious” national security concerns over the continuation of TikTok’s operations in the United States.
In one of the most important pending cases before the Supreme Court, the justices must determine whether the TikTok ban approved by Congress in April violates the First Amendment. The court has already scheduled two hours of oral arguments in the case on January 10.
The court was flooded Friday with about two dozen briefs from groups and officials who have spoken on both sides of the issue. Technically, Trump is not a party to the case — he filed a “friend of the court” brief, as did several outside groups, members of Congress and others who wanted to offer their perspectives.
But given that the ban is set to take effect on Jan. 19, a day before his inauguration, Trump’s position could carry considerable weight with the justices.
In his brief, Trump technically took no position on the underlying First Amendment questions posed by the case, but he urged the court to delay the Jan. 19 effective date so that his administration could look for a way to solve the problem without prohibition.
Trump suggested the court suspend the ban’s effective date “to allow his new administration to pursue a negotiated resolution that could prevent the nationwide shutdown of TikTok, thereby preserving First Amendment rights tens of millions of Americans, while also addressing the government’s national security concerns. .”
The new president has sent mixed signals in the past regarding his views on TikTok, but recently promised to “save” the platform. Asset met the CEO of TikTok Shou Chew earlier this month, CNN previously reported.
Chew also spoke with Trump Friday evening after the new president asked the high court to stay the ban, two people familiar with the matter told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
Congress passed the ban with bipartisan support in response to years of concern that TikTok’s Chinese parent company poses a national security risk because, as the Biden administration warned in its own brief Friday, it can both collect data on users and manipulate the content that those users see.
The law allows the app to continue operating in the United States if it divests from Chinese ownership. The law gives the sitting president broad authority to decide whether the company has adequately separated itself from its owners.
Trump’s brief, the first before the Supreme Court since his election victory, argues that he operates with a “powerful electoral mandate” and is in a unique position to resolve the TikTok controversy. At one point, he described himself as “one of the most powerful, prolific and influential social media users in history.”
“The First Amendment implications of the federal government effectively shutting down a social media platform used by 170 million Americans are sweeping and troubling,” Trump’s brief says. “There are legitimate concerns that the law could set a dangerous global precedent by exercising extraordinary power to shut down an entire social media platform, largely based on concerns about disfavored speech on that platform. »
Biden and former Trump officials support ban
Earlier Friday, President Joe Biden’s administration and a bipartisan group of former government officials — some of whom once worked for Trump — urged the Supreme Court to maintain ban on TikToksaying the platform’s ties to China pose a “serious” threat to U.S. security.
“TikTok collects vast amounts of data on tens of millions of Americans,” the administration told the Supreme Court on Friday. And, he says, China “could covertly manipulate the platform to advance its geopolitical interests and harm the United States — by, for example, sowing discord and disinformation during a crisis.”
Written arguments submitted Friday to the Supreme Court highlight a tension between national security and freedom of expression at a time when 170 million Americans use TikTok for information and entertainment.
Trump acknowledged in his Friday brief that his administration also raised concerns about the platform and signed an executive order limiting the app. When Trump was president in 2020, he signed an executive order effectively banning TikTok, but it was stopped in court.
But, he argued Friday, the “unfortunate timing” of the law’s effective date “interferes” with his ability to “manage U.S. foreign policy and pursue a resolution aimed at both to protect national security and to save a social media platform that provides a popular means for 170 million Americans to exercise their fundamental First Amendment rights.
Delaying the law’s effective date, Trump said, could “save this court from having to decide the historically difficult First Amendment question.”
Among the The former Trump officials who filed legal briefs Friday supporting the Biden administration’s position and the TikTok ban were Jeff Sessions, Trump’s first attorney general, and Ajit Pai, the Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Commission communications from 2017 to 2021.
The most notable former Trump ally supporting the Biden administration is former Vice President Mike Pence.
Advancing American Freedom, a political advocacy group launched by Trump’s vice president for his first term in 2021, signed a brief describing TikTok as “digital fentanyl” and a “technological weapon.”
“The First Amendment is not, and should not be read as, a means of granting the Chinese government the power to do what the U.S. government could not do: manipulate what Americans can say and hear,” the group told the Supreme Court.
TikTok told the court in its own brief Friday that the federal government was trying to shut down “one of America’s most important speech platforms” and said lawmakers were required by the First Amendment to consider other options, such as disclosing company information. possession.
“History and precedent teach that, even when national security is at stake, speech bans should be Congress’s last resort,” the company said.
Groups advocating for First Amendment protections — including the American Civil Liberties Union and Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute — have urged the Supreme Court to look beyond the government’s national security claims and to assess the ban’s impact on Americans’ freedom to view the online content they want. choose.
“Restricting access to foreign media to protect against alleged foreign manipulation is a practice long associated with repressive regimes,” the Knight First Amendment Institute wrote. “The government has no legitimate interest in denying Americans access to foreign speech – even if that speech contains foreign propaganda or reflects foreign manipulation. »
Similarly, the ACLU warned of “significant disruption to Americans’ ability to interact with the content and audiences of their choice online” if the Supreme Court upholds the ban.
Earlier this month, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., unanimously upheld the ban in a ruling saying the government had a national security interest in regulating the platform.
The speed of the briefing reflects the highly unusual speed with which the Supreme Court agreed to review the case. The court removed the appeal from its emergency docket — where TikTok sought to temporarily suspend the ban — and agreed to consider substantive First Amendment questions regarding the law.
Trump’s brief was filed by D. John Sauer, whom Trump has said he intends to nominate for solicitor general and who, if confirmed, will represent the Trump administration on the Supreme Court.
“There are compelling reasons to extend the deadline for the law,” Sauer argued, “and to allow President Trump to pursue a negotiated solution once in office.”
This story has been updated with additional reporting.