TikTok Lawyer
Appearances
The Journal.
The TikTok Ban Goes to the Supreme Court
The act requires it to go dark unless ByteDance executes a qualified divestiture. Whether you call that a ban or a divestiture, one thing is clear. It's a burden on TikTok's speech. So the First Amendment applies.
The Journal.
The TikTok Ban Goes to the Supreme Court
I think that's theoretically correct, Your Honor, but I think that also underscores the content-based nature of the restriction.
The Journal.
The TikTok Ban Goes to the Supreme Court
How exactly are the creators' speech being impeded?
The Journal.
The TikTok Ban Goes to the Supreme Court
But it doesn't say anything about creators or people who use the site. It's only concerned about the ownership and the concerns that data will be manipulated or there will be other national security problems with someone who's not a citizen of this country or a company that's not here.
The Journal.
The TikTok Ban Goes to the Supreme Court
What we're talking about is ideas. And my friends on the other side, when you cut through everything else, are ultimately worried that the ideas that appear on the TikTok platform could in the future somehow manipulate Americans, could somehow persuade them, could somehow get them to think something that they ought not be thinking. Well, that whole notion is at war with the First Amendment.
The Journal.
The TikTok Ban Goes to the Supreme Court
If the First Amendment means anything, it means that the government cannot restrict speech in order to protect us from speech. That's precisely what this law does from beginning to end.