Montana

Montana AG supports federal TikTok ban, as Trump calls for delay in U.S. Supreme Court filing

Published

12 months ago

December 31, 2024

Montana AG supports federal TikTok ban, as Trump calls for delay in U.S. Supreme Court filing

HELENA — Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments over whether to uphold a federal law that would ban the app TikTok if its Chinese owners don’t sell it. Montana’s attorney general is asking the court to let the law go into effect – even as President-elect Donald Trump seeks to delay it.

“I think Congress got it right this time – I don’t often say that, but I think Congress got this one right,” Attorney General Austin Knudsen told MTN.

Last spring, on a bipartisan vote, Congress approved a law that gave TikTok’s parent company nine months to divest the app or risk losing access to U.S. app stores and internet hosting services. That deadline is approaching, on Jan. 19 – the day before Trump’s inauguration.

TikTok sued over the federal law, on the grounds that it infringed on the right of free expression for its millions of users. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and scheduled oral arguments for Jan. 10, leaving just a few days before the effective date.

On Friday, Knudsen and 21 other Republican state attorneys general filed an amicus brief, asking justices to let the law take effect.

“Allowing TikTok to operate in the United States without severing its ties to the Chinese Communist Party exposes Americans to the risk of the Chinese Communist Party accessing and exploiting their data,” they wrote.

Knudsen’s Amicus Brief:

At the same time, Trump’s attorneys submitted their own brief. In it, they said they weren’t taking a position on the merits of the case, but that they wanted the court to put a stay on the law, to give Trump time to reach a deal once in office that could resolve the issue “through political means.”

“President Trump alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the Government—concerns which President Trump himself has acknowledged,” they wrote.

While Trump’s brief didn’t support either side in the lawsuit, it did suggest there were “valid concerns” about First Amendment implications from blocking a social media platform.

Trump’s Amicus Brief:

In 2023, the Montana Legislature passed and Gov. Greg Gianforte signed Senate Bill 419, which said TikTok couldn’t operate in the state and app stores couldn’t offer it for download within Montana’s borders. Knudsen was one of the main backers of the law, and he cited concerns that China might be able to access U.S. users’ data. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a company based in China, but has denied any claims that it puts data at risk.

TikTok and a group of Montana-based content creators challenged the state ban. A federal district judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking it, ruling that the state infringing on users’ rights and overstepping onto the federal power over foreign policy. Knudsen appealed that decision, but the entire case was put on hold until the challenge to the federal law was resolved.

Knudsen said what the Supreme Court rules in the federal case will clearly make a difference when it’s time to rule on Montana’s ban. In his amicus brief, he accused TikTok of “trying to have its cake and eat it too” by arguing the state law intruded on federal authority but also challenging the federal law.

In 2020, during his first term as president, Trump issued an executive order that sought to ban TikTok, citing its connections to China. However, during his 2024 campaign, he spoke more favorably about the app, eventually saying people who wanted to “save TikTok in America” should vote for him.

Knudsen told MTN that he doesn’t believe Trump’s change in tone has had an impact on the concerns Montanans have about the app.

“Actually, if you look at what President Trump has said in his public statements, he likes the platform because he was able to reach a lot of young people and he thinks that helped him get elected,” he said. “But if you read that brief that they filed, they don’t dispute the fact that TikTok is a Chinese spying application.”

While China was the biggest topic during the debate over Montana’s SB 419, the law also criticized TikTok for what it said was promoting dangerous content for minors. Knudsen filed a lawsuit against the app and its owners earlier this year, making similar arguments. He told MTN Monday he’d have to “wait and see” what form a divestiture of TikTok would take, before he could say whether it would address those issues to his satisfaction.

While the U.S. Supreme Court typically doesn’t rule quickly on cases, Knudsen said he expects that may be different this time.

“We don’t often see them move this fast, but I think the Roberts court probably recognizes that this is an important issue – it’s a hot issue for certain,” he said.

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Montana

Live Updates: Montana State leads SFA 7-0 in the first quarter

Published

12 hours ago

December 13, 2025

Press Room

Live Updates: Montana State leads SFA 7-0 in the first quarter

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Montana

Frigid Friday – several inches of snow in parts of the area

Published

24 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Press Room

Frigid Friday – several inches of snow in parts of the area

A band of moderate snow has formed from the Cut Bank area, extending southeast across Chouteau, Fergus, and Judith Basin Counties. Be alert for low visibility and slick road conditions. Icy conditions continue in Lewis & Clark and Broadwater counties, where snow fell on top of ice after some freezing rain overnight. Up to a 1/4″ of ice has been reported on cars and sidewalks. Freezing rain may mix in again this morning as milder air begins to move back in.

Today’s Forecast:

Frigid Friday, several inches of snowfall in parts of the area-Friday, December 12

It will be a frigid today, with high temperatures in the 0s and lower 10s across central and eastern Montana, and mid to upper 30s in Helena.

The snow band will continue throughout the day, bringing several inches of snow to areas east of I-15. The band of snow will gradually push east tonight, impacting Blaine, Phillips, and Valley counties overnight. Snow showers taper off by Saturday morning.

MTN News

Expect difficult driving conditions through Saturday morning, especially east of I-15 and into the mountains.

Arctic air slowly retreats north on Saturday. Temperatures start off in the -10s to near 0 on the Hi-Line and in the 0s for central Montana, then climb to the 0s and 10s for the Hi-Line and 10s to 20s in central Montana by Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, it will be a pleasant weekend in Helena with temperatures in the low 40s. A gusty breeze develops on Sunday, as temperatures warm nicely into the low to mid 40s in central Montana and into the 30s in northeast Montana.

Looking ahead to next week, mild and windy conditions kick off the workweek, followed by active weather returning midweek.

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Montana

Atmospheric river drives flooding in northwest Montana

Published

2 days ago

December 12, 2025

Press Room

Atmospheric river drives flooding in northwest Montana

Warm temperatures and an “atmospheric river” of precipitation that flowed into northwestern Montana this week have generated a state of emergency in Montana’s northwesternmost county, Lincoln, as local waterways run unseasonably high.

Around 12 p.m. Wednesday, the National Weather Service started issuing flooding watches as area snowpack sites reported 24-hour precipitation totals that were approaching record levels. NWS meteorologist Dan Borsum told Montana Free Press Thursday that the “rain-on-snow” nature of the recent precipitation has led to widespread flooding.

Borsum called the weather pattern “unusual” for mid-December, instead likening it to a warm April.

Zach Sherbo, the public health manager for the Lincoln County Health Department, said in a Thursday afternoon phone call that additional precipitation is expected through Thursday evening, so rivers could continue rising into Friday.

The Lincoln County communities of Libby and Troy have been hit the hardest by the deluge, which prompted emergency services personnel to issue a state of emergency Thursday afternoon. Residents are cautioned against unnecessary travel and those served by the Libby city water supply are under a boil-water order as a precaution in the event of water supply contamination. School has also been canceled for students in Libby and Troy, Sherbo said.

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department has identified a handful of bridges that have been compromised or are washed out as a result of flooding. It suggests residents looking for information on road closures and bridge conditions review an interactive map that is available online and linked in a press release posted to the Lincoln County Health Department’s Facebook page.

“It’s going to take a long time to recoup from this, just structurally, just with the bridges we’ve lost already and the condition that they’re in and going toward,” Sherbo said. “It’s a pretty big combined local effort right now.”

Justun Juelfs, the Kalispell-area maintenance chief with the Montana Department of Transportation said three stretches of state-managed roadways were closed or under monitoring status as of 4 p.m. Thursday.

An approximately 80-foot section of the Farm to Market Road south of Libby has washed out as Libby Creek carved a new channel. MDT is also monitoring erosion that is occurring along a U.S. Highway 2 bridge southeast of Libby and along a section of Highway 56 near Bull Lake. Juelfs encouraged motorists to review MDT’s road conditions report for up-to-date information on impacts to state highways.

The Army Corps of Engineers is assisting with sandbag-filling and distributing efforts and the Red Cross has set up a shelter for those in need at the Assembly of God Church in Libby, according to Sherbo.

The Montana Disaster and Emergency Services agency is also lending a hand with the flood response. In an email to MTFP, Anette Ordahl with DES wrote that a district field officer and a recovery coordinator are on the ground in Libby to offer assistance.

In a Thursday afternoon press release, Gov. Greg Gianforte noted that Sanders and Flathead counties have also recognized the flooding by issuing emergency or disaster declarations. Up to four inches of additional rainfall are expected across western and south-central Montana, according to a disaster declaration Gianforte’s office included in a 3 p.m. press release.

The National Weather Service reported Thursday morning that the Bear Mountain snowpack monitoring site, located just across the border in Idaho, received 6.5 inches of precipitation as of this morning, making it the third-wettest 24-hour period for the site in its 44-year monitoring history. The six-day precipitation total for Dec. 6-11 is 13 inches.

Borsum, with the National Weather Service, said the recent, unseasonable warm spell in western Montana combined with the “super strong” atmospheric river to melt early season snowpack and drive flooding. A similar rain-on-snow event in early June of 2022 led to widespread flooding in parts of south-central Montana that required extensive repairs to roadways and bridges.

Thursday, the Yaak River near Troy surpassed its official flood stage, running at more than 7,500 cubic feet per second. Its usual volume for this time of the year is about 200 cfs.

The Fisher River near Libby was also nearing flood stage. As of Thursday afternoon, it was running at nearly 4,000 cfs, more than 20 times its usual volume for mid-December.

Zeke Lloyd and Jacob Olness contributed to this reporting.

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