Appeals Court Declines to Delay Pending TikTok Ban

A federal appeals court has declined to delay a law that would force TikTok’s Chinese parent company to divest the social-media app or else face a ban, paving the way for the latter option to take effect January 19.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued the order late Friday, one week after it unanimously upheld the law and rejected TikTok’s request to review its challenge. The decision rejects TikTok and parent ByteDance’s Monday emergency motion in which the companies ask the appeals court for more time to build their case for the Supreme Court. The court called the bid “unwarranted.”

Now, they must rush to get the Supreme Court to intervene. The justices could either agree to hear the case, thereby temporarily preventing the law from taking effect, or they could allow the appeals court’s ruling to stand.