On January 10, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Liberty Justice Center’s First Amendment challenge to the federal TikTok ban set to take effect on January 19.
The upcoming hearing combines three legal challenges to the ban—the Liberty Justice Center’s First Amendment challenge, filed on behalf of the nonprofit BASED Politics; a lawsuit filed by a group of TikTok creators; and a lawsuit filed by TikTok and its parent company ByteDance.
The challengers have urged the Court to make a rapid decision on whether the TikTok ban will take effect as scheduled on January 19.
Jacob Huebert, President of the Liberty Justice Center, will be available to media before and after the argument to discuss the hearing, the potential ramifications of the Court’s decision, and the Liberty Justice Center’s lawsuit, which argues that the TikTok ban is an unprecedented act of censorship that would violate the First Amendment right of over 170 million Americans who use the app. To schedule an interview, please email [email protected].
WHO: Jacob Huebert, President of the Liberty Justice Center
WHEN: 10 a.m. EST, Friday, January 10, 2025
WHERE: Supreme Court of the United States
1 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20543
HOW: Livestreamed audio of the oral arguments will be available to the public on the Supreme Court’s website here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/live.aspx.
Members of the press who wish to attend the hearing in person must apply for a press seat by contacting the Public Information Office no later than 5 p.m. Thursday, January 2. These seats are limited. Instructions for the application process are available here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/media/mediaadvisories/ma12-18-24.
For other questions about media access, contact the Supreme Court’s Public Information Office by calling the main phone line at 202-479-3211 or emailing [email protected].
ISSUE BACKGROUND: In April 2024, President Biden signed the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act into law. The Act will effectively ban TikTok in the United States as of January 19, 2025, by forbidding app stores from providing it to U.S. users and forbidding the app from being hosted on U.S.-based servers. To avoid a ban, the Act demands that TikTok’s parent “divest” it, transferring ownership to a different company without ties to China or any other “foreign adversary.” TikTok has stated that it is impossible to do so by the January 19 deadline, and that it will not do so.
On June 6, the Liberty Justice Center filed a First Amendment lawsuit challenging the ban on behalf of BASED Politics, a nonprofit that uses social media platforms including TikTok to publish educational content on free markets and individual rights. The Liberty Justice Center’s lawsuit argues that the Act violates the First Amendment because it bans all speech on TikTok—even though all, or nearly all, of that speech is constitutionally protected.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a decision rejecting constitutional challenges to the ban on December 6.
On December 16, the Liberty Justice Center and the group of TikTok creators suing to challenge the ban jointly filed an emergency petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case. TikTok and its parent company ByteDance filed a similar appeal. The Supreme Court granted the petitions on December 18, scheduling oral arguments for January 10.
The Liberty Justice Center’s legal filings in BASED Politics Inc. v. Garland are available here.