Supreme Court Agrees to Hear TikTok Ban Challenge — High-Stakes Oral Argument Set for January 10th

TikTok’s battle for stateside survival just became even more interesting, as the Supreme Court has officially agreed to hear the platform’s ban-law challenge.

The nation’s highest court granted TikTok’s request for review moments ago, after the app and its ByteDance parent submitted a corresponding petition earlier this week.

Said petition came on the heels of an appeals panel ruling upholding the ban law, which, barring court intervention, TikTok’s sale, or a once-off 90-day extension from the president, would result in the app’s domestic ban on January 19th.

While it perhaps goes without saying given that this cutoff is about 30 days away, the stakes are decidedly high for TikTok, which (along with ByteDance) remains adamant that it has no intention to sell.

Keeping the focus on the showdown before the Supreme Court, both TikTok and the government have until 5 PM ET next Friday, December 27th, to submit up to 13,000-word-long opening briefs. Reply briefs, capped this time at 6,000 words apiece, are due the following Friday (January 3rd), with the all-important oral argument scheduled for a total of two hours on Friday the 10th.

The core discussion, the brief spells out, should zero in on whether the TikTok ban bill violates the First Amendment.

“The parties are directed to brief and argue the following question:  Whether the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, as applied to petitioners, violates the First Amendment,” the relevant text states in no uncertain terms.

As for the injunction sought by TikTok – pertaining to blocking the January 19th deadline from going into effect, that is – the Supreme Court decision is being “deferred pending oral argument.”

In other words, it’d be an understatement to say that there’s a lot riding on this oral argument. From there, just a week and change will remain until the law blocks the app from operating in the world’s largest economy.

(Regarding the logistical considerations at hand, Congress has already notified the Play Store and the App Store to begin preparing for TikTok’s removal.)

Additionally, January 19th will arrive one day before the administration change. Consequently, though President-elect Trump has acknowledged having a “warm spot” for the platform, TikTok’s operational cutoff will precede his taking office. (It’s unclear whether President Biden will grant the extension.)

Without diving too far into the numerous factors at play, there’s a lot more to the situation than simply turning off TikTok in the U.S. on the 19th and then, assuming the president-elect grants the 90-day extension, powering the platform back up for its approximately 150 million domestic users.