Supreme Court Fast-Tracks TikTok Case in Face of Jan. 19 Deadline

The company and its Chinese parent invoked the First Amendment in urging the justices to step in before a deadline to sell or be shut down.

The Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to hear TikTok’s challenge to a law that could ban its U.S. operations, putting the case on an exceptionally fast track that will culminate in oral arguments next month.

In setting aside two hours for the argument on Jan. 10, the justices signaled that they viewed the questions in the case as extraordinarily critical, pitting the Constitution’s protection of free expression against the government’s assertions of threats to national security.

The court’s move came only two days after TikTok and ByteDance, its Chinese parent company, filed an emergency application asking the justices to temporarily block the law. In another break with its usual practices, the court did not ask the government to respond to the application, instead treating it as a petition seeking review and granting it.

The law, which passed with wide bipartisan support, calls for ByteDance to sell it to a non-Chinese company or otherwise face a ban in the United States. TikTok has said the law violates the First Amendment. But the Biden administration and lawmakers have countered that given its Chinese ownership, TikTok raised national security concerns because of the breadth of user data available and the risk that the Chinese government could use the app to spread covert disinformation.

The court did not block the law while the case moves forward, which suggested that it may issue a ruling before the Jan. 19 deadline set by the law. That would mean the case would be resolved before President-elect Donald J. Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20.

The law allows the president to extend the deadline for 90 days in limited circumstances. Mr. Trump has sent mixed messages about his support for the app, including by meeting this week with executives of TikTok at his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago.