What You Need to Know: Friday, April 26
TikTok faces a ban, SCOTUS weighs abortion rights, and Tennessee teachers will be able to carry guns
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Wait…Is TikTok actually getting banned?
What happened? On April 23, the U.S. Senate approved a legislative package that would require TikTok to be sold within a year or face a ban in the U.S. — along with granting foreign aid to Gaza, Israel, and Ukraine. On April 23, President Biden signed the bill into law. This ban comes after months of investigation into TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance. Critics claim that the company’s origin raises data and security concerns, suggesting that the Chinese government might attempt to obtain American user data through the app. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) spoke to these security concerns, stating, “The idea that we would give the Communist Party this much of a propaganda tool, as well as the ability to scrape 170 million Americans' personal data, it is a national security risk.”
What was TikTok’s response? Just moments after President Biden signed the legislation, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew posted a video on the platform, notifying users that “we aren’t going anywhere” and calling the ban on TikTok “a ban on you and your voice.” TikTok also highlighted the company’s revenue and impact on the economy, stating the decision “trample[s] the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate[s] 7 million businesses, and shutter[s] a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy, annually." The head of public policy for the Americas at TikTok, Michael Beckerman, announced the company plans to challenge the bill in court.
How will this impact my user experience? For now, user experience on the app should remain largely unchanged. Users can backup their videos and posts by choosing the “Download your data” option in their account's settings and privacy feature. Many small creators have expressed concern over the ban's impact on their brands and businesses. More than 7 million Americans use TikTok to sell products. Experts have noted that TikTok could struggle to find a buyer, given that China's government has expressed strong opposition to a forced sale of the app and the company’s $10 billion valuation is a hefty price tag. Additionally, other technology companies may be unable to purchase the company due to antitrust laws.
Abortion at the Supreme Court
What’s going on? To explain what’s happening now, we have to look back to 1986. That year, Congress passed an Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) requiring any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funding to “stabilize” patients facing medical emergencies and safely transfer them to a location where they can receive treatment. In July 2022, the Biden administration reaffirmed their commitment to EMTALA, verifying that “EMTALA includes the need to perform stabilization abortion care if it is medically necessary to treat an emergency medical condition” and that federal law overrides state jurisdiction. However, following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Idaho’s “trigger law,” known as the Defense of Life Act, immediately banned all abortions except in the case of preventing a mother’s death and threatened any doctor performing an abortion with up to five years in prison and loss of medical license. In August 2022, the Biden administration sued Idaho, arguing their abortion ban violated EMTALA’s “stabilization” requirement and did not allow enough accommodation if “a woman has complications that pose a substantial health risk but not imminent death.”
Opening arguments On April 24, the Supreme Court heard opening arguments in the case, Moyle v. United States. Idaho argued that the Biden administration, by specifically stating that abortion care could be included in EMTALA, was attempting to create a “nationwide abortion mandate” post-Roe and was overextending the power of the federal government to dictate state laws on healthcare. The Biden administration continued to assert that Idaho’s law prohibited doctors from making critical decisions about patient health and violated EMTALA.
During the trial, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan questioned Idaho's lawyer, Joshua Turner, whether exceptions could be made in situations where a pregnant person experienced complications that posed a health risk but did not threaten her life, to which Turner answered that the medical decisions discussed are “subjective.” Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh, asserted that the exceptions to abortion outlined by Idaho law and emergency “stabilization” by EMTALA were essentially the same, suggesting the conflict may be overstated. This ruling’s impact might be felt outside of Idaho as other states, like Texas, have comparable abortion restrictions. The Supreme Court is expected to reach a decision by the end of June.
Tennessee allows educators to carry guns
What happened? On April 22, the Tennessee legislature, in a 68-28 vote, passed SB 1325, a bill authorizing “faculty or staff member of a school to carry a concealed handgun on school grounds subject to certain conditions, including obtaining an enhanced handgun carry permit and completing annual training.” Sen. Paul Bailey sponsored the bill, arguing that armed staffers would be trained to quickly respond to an attack and protect students in the event of a school shooting. The bill also contains a confidentiality clause, indicating that knowledge about which teachers carry a gun is only known to approved participants. Parents will not be notified if their child's teacher or any other teacher on campus is armed. Teachers must also have a gun permit, undergo a background check and mental health evaluation, and complete 40 hours of training annually. According to the Giffords Law Center, an organization focused on preventing gun violence, at least 26 other states have laws, with some exceptions, permitting teachers or other school administrations to carry guns on school property.
What has been the response? Those opposing the bill noted it was signed almost a year after Tennessee's most fatal school shooting at Covenant School in Green Hills, Tennessee, where an armed assailant killed three children and three adults. Rep. Bo Mitchell (D) spoke about the ongoing issue of gun violence in her dissent, stating, “This is our reaction to students and teachers being murdered in a school? (..) throw more guns at it. What’s wrong with us?” Students and parents rallied at the state capitol on April 15 to protest the bill, asserting their concerns over the security risks of having firearms in the classroom and instead advocating for broader firearm restrictions. Some teachers also contested the bill, noting they “didn’t go into teaching to shoot anyone” and would be “reluctant to continue [their] career path if school staffers were armed.” Legislators did acknowledge that they were unsure of how many school districts and teachers would be interested in arming themselves, stating, “There’s a very low probability that even one-tenth of 1 percent [of teachers] would do this.”
Who was the man who self-immolated outside of Trump’s trial?
What happened? On April 19, just moments before jury selection in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial was complete, Maxwell Azzarello, a 37-year-old from St. Augustine, Florida, threw a handful of pamphlets into the air, poured liquid accelerant on his body, and self-immolated outside the courthouse. Although bystanders attempted to put out the fire, Azzerello died early Saturday morning after being taken to the hospital by first responders.
What do we know about Azzarello? Azzarello’s social media accounts and the pamphlets thrown shortly before the incident, titled "Dips--- Secrets of our Rotten World" and "The True History of the World,” indicated he previously expressed anti-government views, accusing “powerful people of running Ponzi schemes and warned of an imminent economic collapse and coup.” According to his Substack account, he explained he believed the immolation in front of the courthouse to be an “extreme act of protest to draw attention to ... an apocalyptic fascist world coup.” He previously wrote about COVID-19, calling it an “economic doomsday device,” and claimed the Simpsons referenced real-world events. Friends and family noted Azzarello seemed “troubled,” and social media indicated he was previously treated for mental health issues.
Individuals on social media have circulated Azzarello’s pamphlets, with some claiming his actions were an effort to “reveal the truth” about the global elite. Others claimed the event was a hoax to draw attention away from the Trump trials.