The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue decisions on Jan. 15 in pending cases, possibly including the TikTok appeal.
The court announced on its website that “it may announce opinions” on Jan. 15, without providing specifics.
President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on Jan. 20 and is himself a social media entrepreneur, also submitted a brief urging the justices to pause the law to allow him to develop a political solution when he returns to the White House.
President Joe Biden, who leaves office in a week, signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act on April 24, 2024, after bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate passed it.
TikTok is operated in the United States by TikTok Inc., a U.S. company that Cayman Islands-based ByteDance Ltd. owns indirectly.
TikTok acknowledges that ByteDance owns subsidiaries in China and other nations but denies that China influences its operations.
At the hearing on Jan. 10, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said TikTok poses a threat to U.S. national security because China “has a voracious appetite to get its hands on as much information about Americans as possible, and that creates a potent weapon ... because the PRC [People’s Republic of China] could command that ByteDance comply with any request it gives to obtain that data that’s in the hands of the U.S. subsidiary.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson seemed to support upholding the law.
“TikTok can continue to operate as long as it is not associated with ByteDance,” she said.
Chief Justice John Roberts said, “Are we supposed to ignore the fact that the ultimate parent is, in fact, subject to doing intelligence work for the Chinese government?”
Justice Elena Kagan said TikTok Inc. has First Amendment rights because it is a U.S. company, but she questioned whether the law affects those rights.
TikTok attorney Noel Francisco said that the law “singles out a single speaker for uniquely harsh treatment” and that this violates the First Amendment.