Judge Grants Stay in Mont. TikTok Case Pending D.C. Circuit Ruling on Federal Ban

A district court judge in Missoula, Montana, granted the joint motion of the parties in the consolidated case that challenges the state's statewide TikTok ban to stay their proceedings pending the "final adjudication" of the company's constitutional challenge to the federal TikTok ban embedded in the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy issued his signed order Wednesday (docket 9:23-cv-00061). TikTok and parent ByteDance filed the constitutional challenge May 7 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2405070045). The stay will be lifted if the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reverses Molloy’s preliminary injunction barring Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R) from enforcing the statewide TikTok ban, said the order. It directs the parties to file a joint status report within 30 days of the final adjudication of the D.C. Circuit action.