Seven people have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump after he blocked them from seeing or interacting with his Twitter account. Trump blocked these Twitter users from seeing or interacting with his @realDonaldTrump account – not the @POTUS account. This case presents a unique situation and it will be interesting to see what the outcome will be.
In addition to President Trump, White House press secretary Sean Spicer and White House director of social media Daniel Scavino were named as Defendants in the lawsuit.
The seven blocked people are being represented by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. The case was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. A paragraph from the Introduction portion of the lawsuit provides a quick explanation of what this case is about:
“President Trump’s Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, has become an important source of news and information about the government, and an important public forum for speech by, to, and about the President. In an effort to suppress dissent in this forum, Defendants have excluded – “blocked” – Twitter users who have criticized the President or his policies. This practice is unconstitutional, and this suit seeks to end it.”
The lawsuit describes what each individual plaintiff tweeted @realDonaldTrump before being blocked from viewing or interacting with that Twitter account.
The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University argues that being blocked from the @realDonaldTrump account violated the First Amendment because it imposes a viewpoint-based restriction on the individual Plaintiff’s participation in a public forum. It also argues being blocked prevents Plaintiff’s access to official statements the President otherwise makes available to the general public, and because it imposes a viewpoint-based restriction on the Plaintiff’s ability to petition the government for redress of grievances.
I took a quick look at the @realDonaldTrump Twitter account shortly before posting this. It does not include any tweets about this lawsuit.