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Who is Carl Nichols? How district judge blocked Trump's TikTok ban, Internet says 'teens rejoice, do your thing’

Judge Carl Nichols of the US District Court for the District of Columbia blocked President Donald Trump's TikTok ban and granted a temporary relief for users of the popular video-sharing app

Good news was delivered by a federal judge on September 27, for TikTok and its users. Judge Carl Nichols of the US District Court for the District of Columbia blocked President Donald Trump's TikTok ban and granted a temporary relief for the hugely popular video-sharing app.

As reported by NPR, during a telephone court hearing, lawyers on behalf of TikTok argued that POTUS’ crackdown invaded free speech and due process rights. John Hall, an attorney for TikTok, said that the app, with around 100 million American users, is a “modern-day version of the town square” and closing it down is similar to silencing speech.

This action to ban TikTok would have meant that the app would have been removed from smartphone app stores and TikTok could not have gained new users. And those who already had it would not be able to avail app updates, eventually making it nonfunctional. The November 12 deadline for TikTok to hand over its US operations to an American company or face possible disappearance from the country was denied by Nichols.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for TikTok said, “We will continue defending our rights for the benefit of our community and employees. At the same time, we will also maintain our ongoing dialogue with the government to turn our proposal, which the President gave his preliminary approval to last weekend, into an agreement.” After the decision, the Trump administration said it will postpone the planned ban of the app, but guaranteed that they will continue the legal battle. “The EO is fully consistent with the law and promotes legitimate national security interests. The Government will comply with the injunction and has taken immediate steps to do so, but intends to vigorously defend the EO and the Secretary's implementation efforts from legal challenges,” the Commerce Department said in a statement.

This decision means that the app can now fully operate without interruption at least until a full court hearing. Nichols's views supporting his decision was not immediately released publicly. A full hearing date on the case has not been set yet.

Who is Judge Carl Nichols?

According to a Buzzfeed report, from 2005 to 2009, he served in the Justice Department, initially as deputy assistant attorney general for the Federal Programs Branch of the Civil Division, which defends federal agencies against lawsuits. Later, he was promoted to principal deputy associate attorney general, serving under the associate attorney general, who is the third-ranking official in the department.

He left the government in 2009 and joined Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, where he worked as a partner until 2019. Nichols was mentioned as a potential judicial nominee in March 2018. In June 2018, Trump announced his wish to nominate Nichols to serve as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He was nominated to the seat vacated by Richard W Robert.

In January 2019, Trump announced that he will re-nominate Nichols for a federal judgeship. His nomination was sent to the Senate later that day. In May 2019, his nomination was confirmed by a vote of 55–43.

In August 2019, he temporarily blocked New York state officials from handing over Trump’s state tax returns to a House committee chairman, according to a court filing made public, as per CNBC. In November 2019, as per ABC News, Nichols granted a motion to dismiss the lawsuit that Trump filed in July over the TRUST Act in New York, which gave Congress the ability to retrieve tax information from New York residents.

After his latest ruling, Twitter had a lot to say. One user said, “Talk about having a bad day, a Judge just blocked Trump's Tik Tok ban.” Another said, “A federal court judge temporarily blocked Trump’s order to ban tik tok... we live to see another day.”

In June it was reported that the president's campaign, on June 11, had tweeted urging people to use their phones to register for free tickets for the Tulsa rally. Reports state that K-pop fans shared the information with their groups and urged the followers to get the tickets and not show up for the rally. The plan quickly spread and TikTok users also followed the lead of K-pop fans, with a 51-year-old woman reportedly leading part of the charge on TikTok, according to CNN. She posted the video, asking people to "reserve tickets now and leave him standing alone there on the stage." The TikTok users have also vowed to continue trolling the president's campaign.

One user pointed to that incident and said, “Ha Ha  Guess he can't punish the teens who faked tickets for his OK rally! He's so vindictive !” Another user said, “Hell ya! Take that Trump!  US TikTok ban temporarily blocked as judge grants preliminary injunction.”  A user commented, “Teens rejoice.  You get to keep tiktok.  The evil one has been stopped. Do your thing.”