Gorsuch, J., concurring in judgment
24–657, pp. 8–11. More than that, while I do not doubt that the various “tiers of scrutiny” discussed in our case law—“rational basis, strict scrutiny, something(s) in between”—can help focus our analysis, I worry that litigation over them can sometimes take on a life of its own and do more to obscure than to clarify the ultimate constitutional questions. Riddle v. Hickenlooper, 742 F. 3d 922, 932 (CA10 2014) (Gorsuch, J., concurring).
Fourth, whatever the appropriate tier of scrutiny, I am persuaded that the law before us seeks to serve a compelling interest: preventing a foreign country, designated by Congress and the President as an adversary of our Nation, from harvesting vast troves of personal information about tens of millions of Americans. The record before us establishes that TikTok mines data both from TikTok users and about millions of others who do not consent to share their information. 2 App. 659. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, TikTok can access “any data” stored in a consenting user’s “contact list”—including names, photos, and other personal information about unconsenting third parties. Ibid. (emphasis added). And because the record shows that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) can require TikTok’s parent company “to cooperate with [its] efforts to obtain personal data,” there is little to stop all that information from ending up in the hands of a designated foreign adversary. Id., at 696; see id., at 673–676; ante, at 3. The PRC may then use that information to “build dossiers … for blackmail,” “conduct corporate espionage,” or advance intelligence operations. 1 App. 215; see 2 App. 659. To be sure, assessing exactly what a foreign adversary may do in the future implicates “delicate” and “complex” judgments about foreign affairs and requires “large elements of prophecy.” Chicago & Southern Air Lines, Inc. v. Waterman S. S. Corp., 333 U. S. 103, 111 (1948) (Jackson, J., for the Court). But the record the government has amassed in these cases after years of study supplies compelling reason
