The Justice Department on Friday urged the Supreme Court to reject President-elect Donald Trump’s request to delay the implementation of a regulation that will successfully ban TikTok within the U.S. or drive its sale by its Chinese dad or mum firm by Jan. 19.
The newest submitting within the Supreme Court case comes after Trump’s lawyer D. John Sauer requested the courtroom to pause the regulation past the deadline to present the president-elect “the chance to pursue a political decision to the questions at challenge within the case.”
The DOJ argued that Trump’s submitting took “no place” on the First Amendment query, which is the premise of the lawsuit that the Supreme Court agreed to listen to on a fast-tracked foundation. TikTok and its dad or mum firm, ByteDance, sued to attempt to cease implementation of the regulation, arguing that it violates its free speech rights beneath the First Amendment.
The DOJ stated that granting Trump’s request would equate to a short lived injunction and will solely be applied if ByteDance established a probability that it might win the case, however that the corporate had not executed so.
The Justice Department additionally tackled ByteDance’s First Amendment argument head-on in Friday’s submitting.
“The Act doesn’t warrant heightened First Amendment scrutiny as a result of it doesn’t impose a burden on any cognizable First Amendment rights of ByteDance, its U.S. subsidiary, or TikTok’s customers,” legal professionals for the division wrote.
“The Act satisfies any degree of First Amendment scrutiny, and this Court ought to uphold it,” they added.
If the Supreme Court doesn’t act by Jan. 19 or sides with the U.S. authorities, TikTok can be banned simply someday earlier than Trump is inaugurated, one thing he identified in his personal submitting within the case late final month.
“President Trump takes no place on the underlying deserves of this dispute. Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court think about staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, whereas it considers the deserves of this case,” Sauer wrote.
Still, on his personal social media platform, TruthSocial, Trump has been outspoken in his opposition to banning TikTok.
On Friday morning, he wrote, “Why would I wish to do away with TikTok?” alongside a digital graphic exhibiting that his TikTok account has obtained extra views than the accounts of Vice President Kamala Harris, conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, Fox News, and pop stars Taylor Swift and Beyonce.
NBC News has not independently verified the accuracy of this chart.
The Supreme Court agreed to listen to arguments within the case on Jan. 10, simply 9 days earlier than the app is ready to be banned beneath the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which handed Congress with bipartisan help final 12 months and was subsequently signed by President Joe Biden.
The regulation imposes a ban on the app provided that ByteDance, a Chinese firm, remains to be the proprietor of TikTok, successfully pushing ByteDance to promote the app to a U.S.-based firm to permit the app to proceed working right here.
“Nothing within the Act would forestall a post-divestiture TikTok from presenting precisely the identical content material in precisely the identical method. The Act targets management by a international adversary, not protected speech,” Justice Department legal professionals wrote in Friday’s submitting.
A spokesperson for Trump’s transition staff didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Jake Traylor and Daniel Barnes contributed.