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 Court docket to pause implementation of a regulation that may ban TikTok within the U.S. on Jan. 19 if the app is just not offered by its Chinese language mother or father firm.
The courtroom is because of hear arguments in 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 also be the president-elect’s decide for U.S. solicitor common. “As an alternative, he respectfully requests that the Court docket contemplate 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 subject within the case.”
The regulation on the coronary heart of the go well with is the Defending Individuals from International Adversary Managed Purposes Act, a bipartisan measure handed by Congress and subsequently signed into regulation by President Joe Biden in April.
The regulation would require TikTok’s Chinese language proprietor, ByteDance, to promote the platform to an American firm or face a ban.
Earlier this month, the courtroom determined to listen to the case and fast-tracked the schedule for briefing and oral arguments. Nonetheless, the courtroom punted on TikTok’s request to pause implementation of the ban, leaving simply 9 days after oral arguments for it to subject an opinion or indefinitely block the regulation.
Trump, who tried to ban TikTok in 2020 however was blocked by the courts, recommended in Friday’s courtroom submitting that he may negotiate a political decision to the matter earlier than the courtroom 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 considerations expressed by the Authorities—considerations which President Trump himself has acknowledged,” Sauer wrote.
Trump previously met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in December, hours after the president-elect expressed he had a “warm 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. Court docket of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
That courtroom upheld the law, concluding that the federal government’s nationwide safety justifications for banning the app, together with considerations that the Chinese language authorities may entry knowledge about American customers and manipulate content material on the app, have been professional.
Chinese language authorities officers have persistently rejected the argument that TikTok is a menace to U.S. nationwide safety.
In its courtroom submitting Friday, the Justice Division defended the regulation, citing nationwide safety considerations that the Chinese language authorities may affect the corporate.
TikTok, in the meantime, opposed the regulation, saying in its temporary that banning the app would violate free speech rights protected underneath the First Modification.
