On December 27, 2024, the Knight Institute, Free Press, and PEN America filed an amicus brief in TikTok v. Garland, a case before the Supreme Court addressing the constitutionality of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, a law that requires TikTok to be sold by its China-based parent company ByteDance or be banned in the U.S. on January 19, 2025. Previously, on December 6, 2024, the D.C. Circuit rejected challenges to the Act brought by TikTok and a group of its users. 

The Institute’s amicus brief, filed in support of the petitioners, urges the Court to reverse the judgment of the D.C. Circuit. The brief makes four points in support of that outcome. First, the Act implicates the First Amendment because it restricts Americans from accessing ideas, information, and media from abroad. Second, the court should view the Act especially skeptically because it recalls practices that have long been associated with repressive governments. Third, the Act should be subjected to strict scrutiny because it operates as a prior restraint, is motivated by disagreement with particular viewpoints, and forecloses an entire medium of expression online. Fourth, the Act cannot survive any form of heightened First Amendment scrutiny because the government has no legitimate interest in banning Americans from accessing foreign speech, including foreign propaganda, and less restrictive alternatives are available to address the government’s other concerns.

At an earlier stage of the litigation, on December 17, 2024, the Knight Institute, ACLU, and EFF filed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to block enforcement of the ban pending the Court’s consideration of the case. And, while the case was before the D.C. Circuit, the Knight Institute, with Free Press and Pen America, filed an amicus brief on June 27, 2024 arguing that the Act violated the First Amendment and should be enjoined.

Status: The Supreme Court upheld the Act on January 17, 2025.

Case Information: TikTok v. Garland, No. 24-1113 (and consolidated cases) (D.C. Cir.), No. 24-656 (and consolidated cases) (Supreme Court).