TikTok Is Cooked, Trump Is Sentenced
Slate News
Slate Podcasts
4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 11 January 2025
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
While Donald J Trump was virtually fuming at his sentencing hearing in Judge Juan Merchan’s New York City courtroom on Friday morning, the nine justices of the US Supreme Court were taking their seats for oral arguments in the so-called TikTok ban case. And while it only took 40 minutes for the president elect’s sentence of an ‘unconditional discharge’ to be pronounced, the arguments over national security, the First Amendment, and an app that 170 million Americans use took a couple of hours longer.
Amicus has an analysis of all of it. First, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss whether and how Trump’s sentence matters, and what it tells us about the Supreme Court under Trump 2.0. Next, they’re joined by Gautam Hans, clinical Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, who specializes in constitutional law, technology law and policy, to discuss why the Supreme Court seemed so very ready to reach right past the First Amendment and grab for national security in order to uphold the TikTok ban.
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Transcript
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| 0:28.6 | Teas and C's apply. |
| 0:30.8 | At this time, I impose that sentence to cover all 34 counts. |
| 0:36.7 | Sir, I wish you godspeed as you assume your second term in office. |
| 0:43.8 | Hi, and welcome back to Anicus. This is Slate's podcast about the courts and the law and the |
| 0:49.5 | Supreme Court and what the law once was and where it's headed now and how all of that changes our lives. |
| 0:56.0 | I'm Dahlia Lithwick. |
| 0:57.3 | I cover the courts and the law at Slate and on Friday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court heard what can only be described as the most important case, |
| 1:06.6 | pitting free speech rights against national security in the modern era. |
| 1:13.1 | In taking up Congress's impending TikTok ban and doing so at lightning speed, the High Court has really inserted itself |
| 1:19.3 | into this huge global debate about media and technology and publishing and security. And also, |
| 1:27.4 | as you're about to hear, my very favorite pasta, |
| 1:30.8 | the court is also poised to decide whether you are going to literally be able to open TikTok |
| 1:36.8 | in eight days' time, Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern and I listen to the TikTok arguments |
| 1:42.9 | together. And we're going to be digging into those in a couple of minutes. |
| 1:47.5 | Hey there, Mark. |
| 1:48.5 | Hi, Dahlia. |
... |
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