WASHINGTON   -  Fifteen minutes. That’s how much time TikTok will have today to dissuade a federal appeals court from support­ing a possible US ban of its social me­dia app, which is used by 170 million Americans. Those 15 minutes could well be the most significant of TikTok’s US existence. The company is fight­ing for survival in the face of a law, signed by President Joe Biden, whose key provisions could kick in as soon as January. The law Biden signed seeks to ban TikTok on Americans’ personal devices unless its Chinese parent com­pany, ByteDance, quickly sells TikTok to someone else, which may effectively end the app as we currently know it. As the deadline nears for a potential ban, TikTok and ByteDance have gone to court asking for the law to be blocked and declared unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds. TikTok will not get the luxury of a full trial to argue for its continued existence in its cur­rent form. That’s because the law in question requires any legal challenge to bypass federal district court and go straight to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit within a tight timeframe. A three-judge panel will hear the case and decide, likely in a matter of weeks, whether the law is constitutional. On Monday at 9:30 a.m. ET, the companies made their case in oral arguments. TikTok will have just a few minutes to make an impact. But it won’t be alone: A group of TikTok creators also suing the Biden admin­istration will go next, with 10 min­utes to speak. And the Biden admin­istration will wrap it up with its own 25-minute presentation. With each side of the debate allotted roughly a half-hour, TikTok and its allies will try to explain why the court should reject the law and prevent it from being en­forced. DOJ attorneys will explain why a potential TikTok ban or forced sale or as they will likely put it, a “qualified divestiture” — is the only way to keep American users safe. Hearing the case will be Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan, an Obama appointee, along with Judge Neomi Rao, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, and Judge Douglas Ginsburg, a Reagan appointee. The key question facing Monday’s panel: Is the hypothetical risk of Chinese spying through TikTok enough of a national security threat that it justifies a federal law that may infringe on Americans’ constitutional free-speech rights?