Republican AGs ask SCOTUS to uphold law that could trigger TikTok ban
The fate of popular social media video platform TikTok currently hangs in the balance, with the U.S. Supreme Court poised to hear arguments on a law that mandates a ban on the app in mere weeks if key ownership conditions go unmet.
Amid heated debate on what should happen next, Republican attorneys general in two states have filed a brief with the high court requesting that the justices uphold the law requiring TikTok's divestment from Chinese ownership or face prohibition in the U.S. on Jan. 19, as Fox News reports, despite a request from Donald Trump for a delay in any decision.
AGs file amicus brief
It was on Friday that the attorneys general of Virginia and Montana, Jason Miyares and Austin Knudsen, respectively, filed an amicus brief with the high court urging the panel to uphold the TikTok divestment statute despite the platform's contention that doing so would constitute a violation of the First Amendment.
In his brief supporting the law's implementation, Miyares contended that whistleblower information has demonstrated that TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, has provided sensitive user information to the Chinese Communist Party, thus constituting a grave threat to national security.
Miyares told the court, “Allowing TikTok to operate in the United States without severing its ties to the Chinese Communist Party exposes Americans to the undeniable risks of having their data accessed and exploited by the Chinese Communist Party. Virginians deserve a government that stands firm in protecting their privacy and security.”
The brief went on, “The Supreme Court now has the chance to affirm Congress's authority to protect Americans from foreign threats while ensuring that the First Amendment doesn't become a tool to defend foreign adversaries' exploitative practices.”
Though the AGs have addressed the court with substantive arguments about the underlying law, the justices have also received input making a rather different request.
Trump seeks delay
Whereas Miyares and Knudsen are clearly of the belief in the wisdom of a TikTok ban slated to take effect on Jan. 6 absent the aforementioned divestment from Chinese ownership, incoming President Trump has taken a different tack entirely.
Trump, for his part, submitted an amicus brief of his own on Friday, which his lawyer said was “supporting neither party” but rather seeking an extension of time to broker a deal that could save TikTok's presence in the United States.
Trump's brief states, “President Donald J. Trump is the 45th and soon to be the 47th President of the United States of America. On January 20, 2025, President Trump will assume responsibility for the United States' national security, foreign policy, and other vital executive functions.”
Further contending that the matter involves “unprecedented, novel, and difficult tension between free-speech rights on one side, and foreign policy and national security concerns on the other,” Trump suggests that his “particularly powerful interest in and responsibility for” those issues render him “the right constitutional actor to resolve the dispute through political means.”
The president-elect also declares that he possesses “the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will” to achieve an agreement that takes into full consideration the interest of the millions of TikTok users as well as the national security concerns of lawmakers, many of which he has previously acknowledged.
Given that the prospective TikTok ban is slated to go into effect on Jan. 19 unless divestment occurs, and Trump's inauguration is not scheduled to take place until Jan. 20, he is requesting a 90-day pause on the effective date of the statute, something he believe offers sufficient time for him to facilitate a resolution via negotiation that will leave all parties satisfied, but whether that comes to pass, only time will tell.
