The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) urged the Supreme Court on January 3 to deny President-elect Donald Trump’s request to postpone implementing legislation that would ban TikTok or force its sale by January 19, Reuters reports.

The law, enacted in April, requires TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell its U.S. assets or face a ban. The DOJ argues that Trump’s request could only be granted if ByteDance demonstrated likely success on the merits, which it hasn’t.

Trump is seeking time after his January 20 inauguration to pursue a “political resolution” to the issue, according to a legal brief filed on December 27. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case on January 10.

In its filing, the DOJ emphasizes that China “seeks to undermine U.S. interests by amassing sensitive data about Americans and engaging in covert and malign influence operations.” The government contends that ByteDance’s control of TikTok, with its data collection on 170 million Americans, presents a “grave threat to national security.”

TikTok responded on Jan. 3 with a Supreme Court filing challenging the law on First Amendment grounds. The company argued that Congress’s decision not to ban other Chinese-owned apps like Shein or Temu indicates TikTok was targeted for its social media content rather than data practices.

Without court intervention by January 19, new TikTok downloads would be prohibited on Apple and Google app stores. The DOJ noted that if the ban takes effect, it would “not directly prohibit the continued use of TikTok” by users who have already downloaded the app. However, it conceded the prohibitions on providing support “will eventually be to render the application unworkable.”

Trump’s current position marks a shift from 2020, when he attempted to ban TikTok and force its sale to American companies, citing concerns over Chinese ownership.