President-elect Donald Trump on Friday requested the Supreme Court to pause implementation of a regulation that might ban TikTok within the U.S. on Jan. 19 if the app will not be bought by its Chinese mum or dad firm.
The court docket is because of hear arguments in the case on Jan. 10.
“President Trump takes no place on the underlying deserves of this dispute,” wrote D. John Sauer, Trump’s lawyer who can also be the president-elect’s choose for U.S. solicitor normal. “Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court contemplate staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, whereas it considers the deserves of this case, thus allowing President Trump’s incoming Administration the chance to pursue a political decision of the questions at concern within the case.”
The regulation on the coronary heart of the go well with is the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, a bipartisan measure handed by Congress and subsequently signed into regulation by President Joe Biden in April.
The regulation would require TikTok’s Chinese proprietor, ByteDance, to promote the platform to an American firm or face a ban.
Earlier this month, the court docket determined to listen to the case and fast-tracked the schedule for briefing and oral arguments. However, the court docket punted on TikTok’s request to pause implementation of the ban, leaving simply 9 days after oral arguments for them to concern an opinion or indefinitely block the regulation.
Trump, in his court docket submitting, advised he might negotiate a political decision to the matter earlier than the court docket must rule.
“President Trump alone possesses the consummate dealmaking experience, the electoral mandate, and the political will to barter a decision to avoid wasting the platform whereas addressing the nationwide safety considerations expressed by the Government—considerations which President Trump himself has acknowledged,” Sauer wrote.
Trump previously met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in December, hours after the president-elect expressed he had a “warm spot” for the app.
The Justice Department and TikTok additionally submitted briefs within the case on Friday, primarily rehashing arguments they made earlier than the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
That court docket upheld the law, concluding that the federal government’s nationwide safety justifications for banning the app, together with considerations that the Chinese authorities might entry knowledge about American customers and manipulate content material on the app, have been official.
