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Judge says state must narrow its discovery requests in the TikTok lawsuit – Daily Montanan [1]

['Darrell Ehrlick', 'More From Author', '- February']

Date: 2024-02-06  

A federal judge in the first-of-its-kind case that would allow the state to ban the popular social media app TikTok because of alleged ties to the communist Chinese government has said that the state and the social media giant must limit the amount of discovery that happens in the court proceedings.

The ruling, issued Tuesday by U.S. District Court Judge Donald W. Molloy, said that recent discovery attempts by the Montana Attorney General’s Office were either too broad or he could not tell what the state was seeking.

Molloy has already ruled on part of the case, issuing a preliminary injunction against the state law because it was likely unconstitutional, implicating First Amendment rights in the United States Constitution, as well as raising concerns about whether the state was encroaching on the federal government’s role of foreign diplomacy. The ban, which was slated to go into effect, was enjoined — or suspended — pending the outcome of the case.

Montana was the first state in the nation to consider and pass such a measure, largely because state lawmakers worried that the company’s Chinese ties could lead to the communist Chinese government either spying on or tracking the location of Montana citizens. When it was passed, critics of the measure argued that Montana was overstepping its role as a state, trying to appropriate powers belonging to the federal government.

While TikTok argued that attorneys for Montana didn’t need to conduct any more discovery, state attorneys argued that they needed a broad swath of documents and materials, including deposing TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, in order to ferret out connections with the Chinese government.

“Ultimately, the correct course lies somewhere in the middle,” Molloy said in his order.

That middle ground, according to Molloy, will be requiring attorneys for both the state and TikTok to describe in detail what they seek to obtain because “unrestricted discovery is unwarranted.”

“The state must describe in better detail the information it wishes to obtain and how it impacts this court’s merits determinations,” Molloy wrote. “Plaintiff TikTok must do the same regarding the additional discovery it wishes to obtain.”

Molloy has given both the state and TikTok until Feb. 15 to provide a “detailed accounting” of individuals or entities it proposes obtaining information from, and what purpose it serves the court case. After that, both will have seven days to respond.

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[1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2024/02/06/judge-says-state-must-narrow-its-discovery-requests-in-the-tiktok-lawsuit/

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