Many wonder why it can take so long to get things through courts.

That’s a good question, and the answer can be short. It’s also one that we’ll leave for another day.

Yet if you ever wanted proof that when they really want to, courts really can move fast, have a look at what has happened so far in the U.S. Supreme Court in TikTok, Inc. v. Garland:

≤ On Dec. 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued its judgment.

≤ On Dec. 16, the plaintiffs-petitioners–with TikTok as the lead plaintiff-petitioner–filed in the Supreme Court, and with Chief Justice John Roberts–a motion for an injunction pending review.

≤ The plaintiffs-petitioners–whom we’ll call “TikTok” here–contend that the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, as applied to TikTok, violates the First Amendment.

≤ In its motion, TikTok asked that while the court considers the whole action, the court enjoin–that is, prevent–the federal government from enforcing the challenged law against TikTok.

≤ The motion also suggested that the court could, to put it in laity’s terms, step on the gas and floor it. To put it in Supreme Court terms, TikTok suggested that the court construe the motion for an injunction pending review as (read: convert the motion into) a petition for writ of certiorari. In other words: Treat the motion as a request to take up the whole action, and grant the request.

≤ On Dec. 16, 17, and 18, TikTok supporters filed amicus–or friend-of-the-court–briefs.

≤ On Dec. 18, Roberts referred the motion to the whole court.

≤ On Dec. 18, the court stepped on the gas; floored it; granted the request; directed the parties, which at the ordinary pace would have had months to prepare their opening briefs, to file them by Dec. 27; set a Dec. 27 deadline for all amicus briefs; directed the parties to file reply briefs by Jan. 3; announced it would hear the challenge on Jan. 10; and extended the usual half hour, which each side usually gets, to one hour.

Wow.

As an aside, just imagine the telephone calls from lawyers, paralegals, and legal secretaries to family and friends on Dec. 18.

One of the calls may have gone something like this: “Hi Honey, sorry to spring this on you like this, but I thought you’d want to know now rather than later. I’m afraid there’s bad news. You’re not going to be happy, and I understand that. You know all of those plans we had for the coming days.”

“Yes.”

“Yeah, uh, sorry: Can we please postpone those?”

“What? You’re serious? We had everything organized.”

“Yeah, sorry, Honey, this is huge. It’s the TikTok challenge I told you about. The court just stepped on the gas and floored it. I’ll make it up to you. Gotta go. Love you. I’ll be home late. We’ll talk about it more then. Thank you. Bye.”

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It’s tempting to think the court didn’t accelerate this whole process so that the court could take the customary several months to write an opinion.

After all, the challenged law takes effect for TikTok on Jan. 19. It’s a bit much to believe that’s a coincidence, because (1) Jan. 19 is a Sunday (2) in the middle of a three-day weekend (3) with the third day being an Inauguration Day that, (4) as one could have foreseen as Congress was considering the challenged law, will usher in big changes (5) quickly as (6) Joe Biden departs and (7) Donald Trump re-takes the reins.

Inauguration Day 2025 is the flip side of Inauguration Day 2021.

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As this columnist once said before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, you just never know what the Supreme Court is going to do until it does it.

Yet don’t be surprised if the court issues this opinion by Friday, Jan. 17, even though doing so won’t be easy for the justices, the law clerks, or their secretaries.

The issues are complex and the parties’ briefs are dense, which is particularly understandable here, given how little time the parties had to prepare them.

Recall the old Mark Twain adage, apologizing for writing such a long letter when there wasn’t time to write a short one.

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Dr. Randy Elf is wondering — in all good humor — if he could ever get the U.S. Supreme Court to move this quickly, even if it wrecked Christmas. On the other hand, if he had somehow managed to get the Supreme Court to move this quickly during Christmas 2019, that wouldn’t have been good for his and Hilary Elf’s Dec. 28 wedding.

(c) 2025 BY RANDY ELF