Briefs

Supreme Court will hear case on law to ban U.S. access to TikTok

December 18, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF A FEDERAL LAW to potentially ban TikTok will go before the U.S. Supreme Court in January, the Associated Press and the nation’s highest judicial body reported on Wednesday. The nine justices will hear arguments on Jan. 10 about whether the law, which sets a Jan. 19 deadline for TikTok to either be sold or banned, violates the First Amendment’s free speech clause in light of the U.S. government’s articulated commitment to protect national security and its concerns over China. The Supreme Court will also hear arguments from content creators who rely on the platform for income. The Jan. 10 argument date means that the Biden Administration’s Justice Department, still in office, will be defending the law, which Congress passed with bipartisan support last spring, and which President Biden signed in April. Lawyers for TikTok and its parent company, China-based ByteDance, had urged the justices to intervene before the Jan. 19 deadline, which falls one day before President-elect Trump’s inauguration. It is believed he might pause the law’s enforcement.

A federal appeals court on Dec. 6 had upheld the TikTok law, the Associated Press and the Brooklyn Eagle both reported earlier this month.

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