Trump Barred From Blocking People on Twitter — Judge Rules It's First Amendment Violation
by Tre Goins-Phillips: President Donald Trump is well into his second year in office, and a judge just ruled he can no longer block people from viewing his personal Twitter account.
On Wednesday, a federal district court judge ruled the president cannot block other Twitter users from accessing his account, even though it's his personal handle — @realDonaldTrump — and not the official government page, @POTUS.
Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that Trump's account is a public forum, and therefore, blocking people with divergent political perspectives is discrimination and constitutes a violation of said individuals' First Amendment rights.
The ruling marks a major victory for the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, the body that brought the lawsuit on behalf of seven people who were blocked from Trump's personal Twitter account presumably because of their political opposition to the Republican leader.
“The president's practice of blocking critics on Twitter is pernicious and unconstitutional, and we hope this ruling will bring it to an end,” Knight Institute executive director Jameel Jaffer said, noting he's “pleased” with the court's decision.
Rather than blocking, Buchwald argued, Trump should simply “mute” users, a setting that blocks Trump from seeing their tweets or responses but doesn't bar them from accessing his account.
“Muting preserves the muted account's ability to reply to a tweet sent by the muting account, blocking precludes the blocked user from 'see[ing] or reply[ing] to the blocking user's tweets' entirely,” she said.
It should be noted Buchwald's ruling applies not just to Trump, but to all elected officials.
It's unclear whether the Knight Institute plans to take action against Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, or Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.).
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Tré Goins-Phillips is a writer for IJR and previously was a writer for TheBlaze.
Tags: Tré Goins-Phillips, IJR, Donald Trump, Barred, Blocking People on Twitter To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
On Wednesday, a federal district court judge ruled the president cannot block other Twitter users from accessing his account, even though it's his personal handle — @realDonaldTrump — and not the official government page, @POTUS.
Federal district court judge in New York says Trump cannot block Twitter users over their political views on his @realDonaldTrump account in a fascinating decision that deals with the frontiers of digital public speech. pic.twitter.com/8xPXuzZ2s9— Byron Tau (@ByronTau) May 23, 2018
The ruling marks a major victory for the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, the body that brought the lawsuit on behalf of seven people who were blocked from Trump's personal Twitter account presumably because of their political opposition to the Republican leader.
These are the plaintiffs in @knightcolumbia v. @realDonaldTrump. Please thank them for their defense of the First Amendment! @Rpbp @BrandonTXNeely@eugenegu @Pappiness @AynRandPaulRyan@familyunequal @joepabike— Knight 1st Amendment (@knightcolumbia) May 23, 2018
Clock's ticking. cc: @realDonaldTrump & @DanScavinohttps://t.co/cFFOebCeh1 pic.twitter.com/9Gp4tvz3Dh— Jameel Jaffer (@JameelJaffer) May 23, 2018
“Muting preserves the muted account's ability to reply to a tweet sent by the muting account, blocking precludes the blocked user from 'see[ing] or reply[ing] to the blocking user's tweets' entirely,” she said.
It should be noted Buchwald's ruling applies not just to Trump, but to all elected officials.
My First Amendment Rights are being trampled. Official court ruling pic.twitter.com/8ZvITQZbI7— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) May 23, 2018
Based on the Trump/Twitter ruling, who wants to represent me in my case against @keithellison?? pic.twitter.com/KHlgIafQAQ— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) May 23, 2018
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Tré Goins-Phillips is a writer for IJR and previously was a writer for TheBlaze.
Tags: Tré Goins-Phillips, IJR, Donald Trump, Barred, Blocking People on Twitter To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
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