This is Brian Lair's Daily Politics podcast from WNYC Studios.

It's Friday, January 17th.

I'm Bridget Bergen, senior reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist Newsroom.

Brian will be back on Monday. Last April, President Joe Biden

signed a law requiring bite dance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to sell its U.S.

assets to an American company by January 19th, 2025, or face a nationwide ban due to national

security issues.

TikTok took the ban to the Supreme Court.

In oral arguments made Friday, January 10th, lawyers for TikTok, its users and parent company

bite dance argued that the ban violated the First Amendment.

Let's take a listen to lawyer Noel Francisco. The government has no

valid interest in preventing foreign propaganda. And its fallback that it seeks merely to prevent

covertness makes no sense, since that could be addressed with a risk disclosure. The government's

real target, rather, is the speech

itself. It's fear that Americans, even if fully informed, could be persuaded by Chinese

misinformation. That, however, is a decision that the First Amendment leaves to the people.

This morning, however, the Supreme Court upheld the ban.

In the decision, the Justice is right, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community.

But Congress has determined that the divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok's

data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary. The decision comes as TikTok

is actually picking up new bipartisan support from lawmakers. Yesterday, top Senate Democrat,

Chuck Schumer urged President Biden to extend the deadline by 90 days.

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