UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
TIKTOK INC., et al.,
Plaintiffs,
v.
DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States, et. al., Defendants.
[]
MEMORANDUM OPINION
On September 24, 2020, the Secretary of Commerce published a list of five types of prohibited business transactions involving Plaintiffs. If implemented, those prohibitions would effectively ban the operation of Plaintiff TikTok in the United States. On September 27, the Court granted Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction with respect to the prohibitions that would have taken effect that day, but deferred judgment as to the others. See ECF Nos. 29–30. For the reasons discussed below, the Court now grants Plaintiffs’ motion as to all the prohibitions.
I. BACKGROUND
A. International Emergency Economic Powers Act
The United States has long used economic sanctions to prohibit transactions that threaten national security. In 1977, Congress enacted IEEPA, which grants the President peacetime authority “to deal with any unusual and extraordinary” foreign “threat” to...
Notes:
1) BACKGROUND
On Dec. 7, 2020, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (D.D.C.) granted a motion for an injunction with respect to an IEEPA-based executive order that required the Department of Commerce to take certain actions toward prohibiting use of the Chinese-owned social media app called "TikTok." See Executive Order 13942 of August 6, 2020 (Addressing the Threat Posed by TikTok, and Taking Additional Steps To Address the National Emergency With Respect to the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain). 85 FR 48637 (2020).
As of the date on which the Memorandum Opinion accompanying the order granting the Dec. 7, 2020 motion was issued, a partial injunction issued in Oct. 2020 by the D.D.C. in the same case was pending appeal at the United...