Prof. Alan Rozenshtein Quoted in South China Morning Post and Politico as TikTok Oral Arguments Begin

Prof. Alan Rozenshtein was quoted in the South China Morning Post and Politico about the upcoming TikTok trial that’s taking place several months after the U.S. Congress and the Biden administration supported bipartisan legislation requiring TikTok to either secure a non-Chinese buyer by January 19, 2025, or face removal from stateside app stores and web-hosting services. In a new development, the U.S. Justice Department has posted a page from a brief submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but it was entirely obscured by black marking and unreadable. According to the Justice Department’s court filings, the decision to advance the law was based on “highly sensitive” information collected by the American government and shared with Congress. On Sept. 16, when the court hears the case’s first oral arguments, the government will seek to keep that information confidential, shielding it from the public and the petitioners while urging the court to consider it in ruling in favor of the law. Prof. Rozenshtein said that the Justice Department has used classified evidence in past cases, “So even in First Amendment cases, it’s not fully unprecedented.” That said, Rozenshtein thought the use of secret evidence in the TikTok case could shake public confidence in the legal system. “One key feature of a legitimate legal system is that it explains its reasoning to the public. And if you’re going to restrict 170 million people’s First-Amendment rights on the basis of secret evidence, that’s very unsatisfying.”