McConnell weighs in on TikTok Supreme Court fight, urging court to reject app's bid to delay ban

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court in an amicus brief to reject TikTok's request to delay a ban on the app unless its parent company ByteDance divests its shares next month.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear the social media company's plea, and is expected to begin hearing oral arguments on January 10, nine days before the deadline to sell.

President Joe Biden signed the potential ban into law in April, which comes amid concerns that the app could operate as an extension of the Chinese government. But the company has strongly denied being "owned or controlled by any government or state-controlled entity."

An attorney for McConnell, who was one of the leaders of the effort to ban the app, rejected TikTok’s argument that the law violates the First Amendment, according to The Hill.

“The topsy-turvy idea that TikTok has an expressive right to facilitate the CCP censorship regime is absurd,” the attorney wrote.“Would Congress have needed to allow Nikita Khrushchev to buy CBS and replace The Bing Crosby Show with Alexander Nevsky? ... The goal of this litigation is delay."

The Supreme Court case comes after a lower court recently upheld the law and declined to issue a temporary injunction on the matter while the appeal process played out. The court determined that the federal government could regulate the platform in the U.S. because of the national security concerns.

The ban is currently scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 19, but President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has vowed to "save" the social media app.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just the News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.