Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said he believes the Supreme Court will invalidate the TikTok divestment bill passed by the House of Representatives, describing it as 'blatantly unconstitutional'.
The House approved a bipartisan bill on Wednesday morning that would require ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to sell its controlling shares of the platform within the next six months or face a ban from operating in the U.S.
During an interview on CNN with anchor Boris Sanchez, Khanna explained why he did not support the bill despite previously calling for TikTok to sell to an American company. He called the bill 'blatantly unconstitutional' and said it threatens free speech. The California lawmaker added that he does not believe the courts will uphold the legislation.
SANCHEZ: You said in an interview in January that TikTok should be forced to sell to an American company. Isn’t that what this bill does? Why did you vote against it?
KHANNA: No it doesn’t. I would support a bill like this. This is blatantly unconstitutional, and I don’t think the courts would uphold it. And the reason is, if the sale didn’t happen, it goes to a ban. The Supreme Court has said it has to be the least restrictive alternative. When you look at a free speech, which 170 million Americans, free speech is an impact, and we could have said that there should have been financial penalties if there isn’t a divestiture. We should have said that we need a strong data privacy bill, but to ban it — I don’t think survives. I think it would be struck down 9 to 0 by the Supreme Court.
Following the decisive vote in the House, Senators now need to decide how to proceed with passage in their chamber as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) intends to “review” the legislation but remains noncommittal.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
