Trump asks Supreme Court to pause TikTok ban, while Biden admin says app poses ‘grave’ threat

President-elect Donald Trump urged the Supreme Court to pause a controversial ban on TikTok that is set to take effect next month, telling the justices in a legal filing Friday that a delay would allow his administration to “pursue a negotiated resolution.”

President-elect Donald Trump urged the Supreme Court to pause a controversial ban on TikTok that is set to take effect next month, telling the justices in a legal filing Friday that a delay would allow his administration to “pursue a negotiated resolution.” Trump’s request for a delay in implementing the ban puts him at odds with the Biden administration, which defended the law in its own brief Friday, warning of “grave” national security concerns about TikTok’s continued operation in the US. In one of the most significant pending cases before the Supreme Court, the justices must weigh whether the TikTok ban Congress approved in April violates the First Amendment. The court has already scheduled two hours of oral argument in the case for January 10. The court was flooded with roughly two dozen briefs Friday from groups and officials who have landed on both sides of that question. Trump is technically not a party in the case —he filed a “friend-of-the-court” brief, as did several outside groups, members of Congress and others who wanted to offer their perspective. But given that the ban is set to take effect January 19, a day before his inauguration, Trump’s position may carry significant weight with the justices. In his brief, Trump technically took no position on the underlying First Amendment questions posed by the case, but he urged the court to delay the January 19 effective date so that his administration could look for a way to resolve the issue without a ban.