At least one branch of the federal government is not prepared to make way for TikTok.
On Friday, a mere seven days after oral arguments in TikTok v. Garland, the Supreme Court in a per curiam opinion unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the divestment law against challenges that it violated the First Amendment.
The court did so even as President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to cut a deal to save the Chinese-owned platform, and outgoing President Joe Biden has stated that he will not enforce the law’s Jan. 19 divestment deadline, since he leaves office the next day.
The law teed up a heavyweight fight in the courts between two of the least flexible demands of a modern liberal polity: free expression vs. national security. But as Justice Neil Gorsuch observed in a concurring opinion, “Speaking with and in favor of a foreign adversary is one…
