In its waning days, the Biden Justice Department will square off in the courtroom against lawyers for TikTok and several creators in a seismic battle that pits national security against free speech.
“The whole point of the First Amendment is that the government can’t shut down speech that it thinks is against its interests,” said Liberty Justice Center President Jacob Huebert, a member of the creators’ legal team.
Under the new law passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress, TikTok can no longer be offered on app stores beginning Jan. 19, unless TikTok divests from its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, or President Biden agrees to a delay.
With neither of those solutions likely, the Supreme Court’s agreement to take up TikTok’s challenge has emerged as the platform’s best remaining hope for a last-minute shakeup. TikTok has more than 170 million users nationwide.
The case has been complicated by the backdrop of a changing administration in Washington.
The Biden administration has been defending the law, which would ban TikTok the day before the inauguration. Friday’s argument is expected to be the final for Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who will lead the administration’s defense of the law at the high court.
President-elect Trump, who has sympathized with the platform in its fight against a ban, is hoping the Supreme Court will issue a delay since he is set to take control of the White House and the Justice Department in less than two weeks.
Once in office, Trump claims he could negotiate a deal that negates the need for the justices to declare the law unconstitutional.
The justices are hearing the case at breakneck speed, even faster than when the justices took up Trump’s claims of presidential immunity last year on an expedited schedule.
In Trump’s case, arguments took place 57 days after the case was taken up; arguments in TikTok’s challenge are being heard just 23 days later.
It gives the Supreme Court an opportunity to issue a ruling before the ban is implemented on Jan. 19. If no ruling lands by then, the law will take effect.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com on Friday morning.
