After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of the federal government’s proposed TikTok ban on Friday, the Liberty Justice Center and a group of TikTok content creators who sued to challenge the ban announced this morning that they have jointly filed an emergency petition urging the Court to halt enforcement of the ban until the U.S. Supreme Court issues a final ruling on the legal challenge.
The Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit to challenge the TikTok ban in June, arguing that it violates the First Amendment by banning all speech on TikTok—even though much or all of that speech is constitutionally protected. The Liberty Justice Center’s lawsuit was combined with two other challenges to the ban—one filed by a group of TikTok content creators and one by TikTok Inc. and its parent company ByteDance—for oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
In today’s emergency petition, the Liberty Justice Center and the TikTok creators argue that the Court must act now to prevent the TikTok ban from violating the First Amendment rights of over 170 million Americans. The ban is currently scheduled to take effect on January 19, 2025—the day before the presidential inauguration. Millions of Americans who use TikTok have an urgent need to engage in political speech immediately following the inauguration, and will therefore suffer immediate and irreparable harm if the ban is enacted. The petition therefore urges the Court to halt enforcement of the ban until the U.S. Supreme Court has heard and issued a final ruling on the matter.
In particular, the ban will do irreparable damage to the Liberty Justice Center’s plaintiff BASED Politics, a nonprofit that uses social media platforms including TikTok to publish educational content on free markets and individual rights. The ban would prevent BASED Politics from engaging in core political speech and from communicating with its audience about President Trump’s actions upon taking office, including the implementation of tariffs, the release of hostages in the Middle East, cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency, and the potential abolition of the Department of Education.
“The TikTok ban would shut down the core political speech of millions of Americans. We look forward to taking this First Amendment fight to the Supreme Court,” said Jacob Huebert, President of the Liberty Justice Center.
BASED Politics Inc. v. Garland was filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on June 6, 2024.
The Liberty Justice Center’s legal filings in BASED Politics Inc. v. Garland are available here.