Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court on Wednesday, urging it to reject TikTok’s request to delay a law that could ban the app next month.
The court announced Wednesday that it will hear arguments over whether the law violates the First Amendment, neither explicitly accepting nor rejecting TikTok’s bid to put the law on hold.
However, the case’s expedited timeline, with oral arguments scheduled for Jan. 10, gives the Supreme Court an opportunity to rule on the case before the ban is set to go into effect on Jan. 19.
As the top Republican in the Senate, McConnell led efforts to pass a foreign aid package in April that included the law. It requires TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to divest from the app or face a ban on U.S. networks and app stores.
In Wednesday’s filing, McConnell dismissed TikTok’s argument that the law violates the First Amendment.
“The topsy-turvy idea that TikTok has an expressive right to facilitate the CCP censorship regime is absurd,” McConnell’s counsel, Michael A. Fragoso, wrote.
“Would Congress have needed to allow Nikita Khrushchev to buy CBS and replace The Bing Crosby Show with Alexander Nevsky?”
“The goal of this litigation is delay,” he added.
President-elect Trump has voiced support for TikTok, promising to “save” the app on the campaign trail, although he has not offered any concrete details about his plans since the election.
McConnell’s lawyer said the Senate minority leader expects the incoming administration to apply the law “if called upon to do so.”
However, he noted, “This offers petitioners a glimmer of hope that their corporate death penalty will be stayed.”
TikTok turned to the Supreme Court on Monday, after a federal appeals court upheld the law earlier this month, finding that it did not violate the First Amendment.
