Friday's Supreme Court ruling on the legality of TikTok will likely shake up the court's conservative and liberal alliances, a legal analyst has told Newsweek.
Why It Matters
The case could have massive implications for the ownership of social media companies that operate in the U.S.
What To Know
On December 18, the Supreme Court announced that it would hear social media platform TikTok's challenge to a new law that will force its Chinese parent company to sell the popular site.
The new law, which comes into effect on January 19, will give parent company ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok, given Congress' concerns about the Chinese government harvesting U.S. users' information.
The Supreme Court is hearing the case on an expedited calendar and has said it will deliver a preliminary ruling on January 10.
The court will decide whether the new TikTok law should be delayed until the federal courts can fully decide the case.
What People Are Saying
Ray Brescia, a professor at Albany Law School in New York and author of the forthcoming book, The Private is Political: Identity and Democracy in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism, told Newsweek that, given the major issues at stake, the case will likely shake up Supreme Court allegiances.
"I think we're likely to see a ruling out of the court with some novel combinations of justices in the majority and dissenting opinions here.
"At the same time, we're unlikely to see the court issue its ultimate ruling until the case works its way through the lower courts once the preliminary issue of whether the law will be stayed is decided."
Brescia said there are two conflicting issues at the core of the case—free speech and national security.
"There are certainly going to be some members of the Supreme Court who are concerned that the legislation requiring TikTok to divest itself of investment by ByteDance runs contrary to First Amendment principles, but there is also likely to be some degree of pushback from those justices who are reluctant to second-guess decisions of Congress and the executive branch on questions of national security," he said.
"Interestingly, it might be the very same justices who harbor concerns that the legislation violates free speech principles who might also be more deferential to the other branches on questions of national security."
What Happens Next
The Supreme Court will decide on Friday whether the new TikTok law should be suspended while the issue is fully decided by the federal courts.
Whichever way the court rules, the case will likely be referred back to the federal courts to decide the issue, using the Supreme Court's written ruling as guidance.
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About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ...
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