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Montana's TikTok Ban Goes Before the Ninth

Circuit



Updated September 3, 2024

On November  30, 2023, a federal district court issued a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of a
law banning TikTok's Montana operations. Without the district court's preliminary injunction, the
Montana law would have become effective January 1, 2024. Montana appealed the district court's order
to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Ninth Circuit). As referenced in a previous Legal
Sidebar, a number of states have enacted some type of restriction of TikTok platform usage, but
Montana's law (SB 419) represents the first attempted ban ofthis breadth among U.S. states per news
reporting. Several months after the district court preliminarily enjoined SB 419, Congress passed the
Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (P.L. 118-50) (PAFACAA),
the provisions of which are discussed in another Legal Sidebar, as are TikTok's legal actions challenging
that law in the D.C. Circuit. The Ninth Circuit ordered a stay of the appellate proceedings regarding
Montana's law pending the outcome of the PAFACAA litigation. Oral argument in the PAFACAA
litigation is scheduled for September 16, 2024. This Sidebar (1) briefly describes the preliminary
injunction of SB 419, (2) discusses selected legal issues before the Ninth Circuit, and (3) highlights some
topics that these legal challenges might raise for Congress.


District Court's Preliminary Injunction of SB 419

Montana's TikTok legislation prompted substantial public commentary. According to the law's preamble,
SB 419 supports the health and safety of Montanans by preventing TikTok's operation in the state and
also expresses concerns about TikTok's parent company being subject to control by the People's Republic
of China (PRC), gathering of user information, and dangerous content. (The broader policy issues
related to the legislation are beyond the scope of this Sidebar.)
TikTok and several of its users filed suit in federal district court following passage of the law. TikTok's
complaint asserted violations of several constitutional rights and provisions (the prohibition against bills
of attainder, the Commerce Clause, the First Amendment, and the Supremacy Clause). Other challengers,
comprising TikTok creators and users, made similar arguments. The court found the plaintiffs' arguments
compelling, concluding they likely would succeed on the merits. The court determined that the plaintiffs
established irreparable harm to their business interests and granted the preliminary injunction, which
prevented SB 419 from taking effect until the court's final resolution of the case.
                                                                 Congressional Research Service
                                                                   https://crsreports.congress.gov
                                                                                      LSB11166

CRS Legal Sidebar
Prepared for Members and
Committees of Congress

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