Lauren Feiner

Tiffany Cianci was finishing a TikTok live stream to 70,000 people when we met in the elevator after a press conference. She was in good spirits even after camping out in her van outside the Supreme Court beginning at 2 AM. “I don’t see it as hopeless right now, and I don’t think that they’ve already decided,” she says. Creator and petitioner Tim Martin also feels “very excited and optimistic” after today’s oral arguments, saying their attorneys “did an incredible job.”

That’s a wrap until the justices issue their ruling (or a stay to keep the law from taking effect). TikTok and creators’ attorneys will be speaking at a press conference this afternoon, and we’re going to check out the scene outside the Supreme Court.

Those foreign-owned companies also collect plenty of data, Francisco argues, showing that Congress was really concerned with going after TikTok specifically since e-commerce apps are not part of the law.

Go figure. She points out, however, that even if the president does choose not enforce the law, companies that don’t comply will still technically be breaking it. And, she adds, the statute of limitations is five years.

Kavanaugh asks whether third parties that could be punished under the law (like Apple and Google) could rely on a presidential promise not to enforce it. Prelogar says there would likely be “strong due process arguments” they could rely on to avoid enforcement under that promise. But pulling TikTok from app stores also might be the push China needs to do a sale, she adds.

That’s because the US’s point of view seems to be that the content may be different if TikTok weren’t owned by a Chinese company, she says. Prelogar says the law itself doesn’t dictate that TikTok produce a different mix of content after divestiture, it’s just about the potential for covert manipulation.

But she also takes note of the government’s argument that it’s also based on data security concerns. “You can’t really run their algorithm without sharing the very data that we are concerned about as a threat,” Sotomayor says, summarizing the government’s stance.

That’s according to Chief Justice Roberts, who provided a lighter moment amid the heavy questioning.