Ian Millhiser

There is a long, long, long standing rule going back at least to the Radio Act of 1912, and it prevented foreign nationals, foreign companies from getting licensed to operate a radio station in the United States. And there's still a similar prohibition in effect right now. So right now, if you are a foreign national, a foreign company,

Even a company with a certain amount of foreign ownership, you are not allowed to get a license to broadcast on the radio in the United States. So this is very, very well established when it comes to that sort of key communications infrastructure. The federal government has long had the power to say Americans only.

Even a company with a certain amount of foreign ownership, you are not allowed to get a license to broadcast on the radio in the United States. So this is very, very well established when it comes to that sort of key communications infrastructure. The federal government has long had the power to say Americans only.

Even a company with a certain amount of foreign ownership, you are not allowed to get a license to broadcast on the radio in the United States. So this is very, very well established when it comes to that sort of key communications infrastructure. The federal government has long had the power to say Americans only.

TikTok does try to argue that the rule governing foreign ownership of media should not apply to TikTok because they say that rule is just about allocating limited bandwidth. There can only be but so many TV stations. And so given that you were dealing with a limited resource, it made sense for the government to make choices about who could and could not own it.

TikTok does try to argue that the rule governing foreign ownership of media should not apply to TikTok because they say that rule is just about allocating limited bandwidth. There can only be but so many TV stations. And so given that you were dealing with a limited resource, it made sense for the government to make choices about who could and could not own it.

TikTok does try to argue that the rule governing foreign ownership of media should not apply to TikTok because they say that rule is just about allocating limited bandwidth. There can only be but so many TV stations. And so given that you were dealing with a limited resource, it made sense for the government to make choices about who could and could not own it.

So that's one of TikTok's arguments. I don't think that's a particularly persuasive argument. And the reason why is that the reason we don't let foreign nationals control radio stations is national security. You don't want a foreign government, potentially a foreign adversary, to be able to broadcast propaganda.

So that's one of TikTok's arguments. I don't think that's a particularly persuasive argument. And the reason why is that the reason we don't let foreign nationals control radio stations is national security. You don't want a foreign government, potentially a foreign adversary, to be able to broadcast propaganda.

So that's one of TikTok's arguments. I don't think that's a particularly persuasive argument. And the reason why is that the reason we don't let foreign nationals control radio stations is national security. You don't want a foreign government, potentially a foreign adversary, to be able to broadcast propaganda.

So who's going to be making that argument for TikTok in front of the Supreme Court on Friday? TikTok has hired Noel Francisco, who is a former solicitor general, used to be Trump's solicitor general. Huh.

So who's going to be making that argument for TikTok in front of the Supreme Court on Friday? TikTok has hired Noel Francisco, who is a former solicitor general, used to be Trump's solicitor general. Huh.

So who's going to be making that argument for TikTok in front of the Supreme Court on Friday? TikTok has hired Noel Francisco, who is a former solicitor general, used to be Trump's solicitor general. Huh.

Yeah. So as a first-term president, Donald Trump tried to essentially ban TikTok, do the same thing that this law does, just do it using executive authority.

Yeah. So as a first-term president, Donald Trump tried to essentially ban TikTok, do the same thing that this law does, just do it using executive authority.

Yeah. So as a first-term president, Donald Trump tried to essentially ban TikTok, do the same thing that this law does, just do it using executive authority.

And the court said, no, you can't do that. You need an act of Congress if you're going to ban it. And so Congress actually did pass that law under the Biden administration. So it used to be that Trump and Biden agreed on this. The law that passed Congress had overwhelming bipartisan support. And Trump rather recently seems to have flipped his position.

And the court said, no, you can't do that. You need an act of Congress if you're going to ban it. And so Congress actually did pass that law under the Biden administration. So it used to be that Trump and Biden agreed on this. The law that passed Congress had overwhelming bipartisan support. And Trump rather recently seems to have flipped his position.

And the court said, no, you can't do that. You need an act of Congress if you're going to ban it. And so Congress actually did pass that law under the Biden administration. So it used to be that Trump and Biden agreed on this. The law that passed Congress had overwhelming bipartisan support. And Trump rather recently seems to have flipped his position.

You know, there was a lower court panel that already heard this case and it was a bipartisan panel. The three judges were Shri Srinivasan and Shri is, you know, he's been talked about as a potential Democratic appointee to the Supreme Court. Very, very highly regarded Democratic judge. The two other judges were Republicans. It was Douglas Ginsburg who's been on the Court of Appeals forever.