By Ann E. Marimow Ann E. Marimow Reporter covering legal affairs Email Bio Follow March 26 at 7:00 AM NEW YORK — President Trump’s Twitter habits are up for argument Tuesday morning, as federal judges consider whether he and other elected officials can block critical voices from their social media accounts.
The Trump administration is appealing a District Court judge’s ruling from May siding with seven individuals blocked on Twitter after they posted comments critical of the president and his policies. Judge Naomi Buchwald of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said the comment threads attached to Trump’s tweets, open to anyone without restrictions, are a public forum. Blocking individuals from those interactive spaces because of their views, she said, is unconstitutional.
“Blocked users are denied the opportunity to participate fully in the rapid, ongoing conversations occurring on Twitter and other social media,” attorneys from Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection wrote in a brief in support of the blocked followers. “. . .
Lawyers for the blocked individuals say the case is not about Twitter, a private company, but about how Trump uses Twitter as president. He routinely takes to Twitter to announce government appointments and dismissals and his administration’s policies. Then-press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters in June 2017 that Trump’s tweets should be considered “official statements by the president.” The National Archives has said Trump’s tweets must be preserved as presidential records.
Enemy of the people
You ain’t god, dude. And this ain’t no monarchy.
If you don’t want to be criticized, then stop tweeting!
No, but jack can!
Free speech is part of the constitution isn’t it? This is wanna be dictatorship!
Let him get away with it!🤥👎🏼 Dolt
Fascinating
Not possible he instead just puts his big boy pants on and ignores the insults? Dissent is legal Constitution
WTF, one way tweets and no opportunity to respond? Well then we'll all block him.
Yes of course hello
What about freeSpeech?
That’s Chumps idea of democracy - no one should be allowed to comment on his criminal actions !
I know a few who he's Blocked on here but I'm Canadian and seem immune!!
Maybe he should be banned from twitter, problem solved!
Just stupid, they should be concentrating on Russia and other foreign companies try to use twitter to miss lead the American People
One step away from dictator.
Bought and paid for Comrade Barr will support him to empower the dictitorship and silence dissent!
The President makes policy announcements on Twitter. If he wants to maintain his account as a personal platform, he should make all announcements & discussion of US policy on the POTUS twitter account.
It’s a personal account not a government account should be a open and closed case!
That's just childish. BeSt not to read it. None of us matter anyhow. Do we just want to read one side? How boring.😴😴😴😴😴😴
He will lose half of his followers if he is successful on this.
Be kinda fun to see him inundated with mail
No one should say negative things about him on Twitter? All who said negative things about him in media, should apologize to him? If you aren't tripping all over yourselves with constant praise, like FOX, you are the enemy of the people? Am I the only one who sees a pattern?
He shouldn't be able to spew his lies without a response from we the people. Do the right thing here.
gracesru Lord of the Pigs.
If we can block people, then he can block people. There are not individual rules for people on Twitter.
signorex3 Twitter needs to ban Trump. His lying cancerous vulgar tweets would have surely garnered anyone else a Twitter Time Out!
The oil, weapons and financial industries, which have continued to exist in the world by periodically seeking blood, hope to see Trump's betrayal. That's why the winds of the world began to blow harder.
If Twitter has become a way to express his ideas or critics, there should be no need blocking them!
Dangerous, bye democracy!
expected move from a dictator😂😂
WTF! Is the dictator trying block everyone from seeing what his critics said about him !
When you are president of the US nothing is a personal platform.
Didn’t baby boy trump just sign a excutive order of free speech? Oh that’s right, its what fox and friends, hannity, et al and baby boy trump determine what’s free speech. Heil Hitler.
There he goes, grabbing himself again because he can. realDonaldTrump
Anyone should be able to block anyone they want. I block people all the time for being rude and nasty, or using profanity, or calling me names. The moment the government starts telling us who we can and can't block on social media - well that is dangerous.
Doesn't matter what the court says. realDonaldTrump now believes he can do whatever he wants and he will be 'totally exonerated.'
Can’t take the heat- get out the White House - that’s a building for real Leaders- not pretenders
Why not? Twitter blocks conservatives.
trump is a charismatic, malignant megalomaniac. If he suppresses critics, we may as well all start paying fealty to his role models-Vlad and Kim. The only ones more despicable than him are enabler Mute Mitch and the eadily conned sheep who don’t see the danger of this sociopath
what a pssy. can dish it out but cant take it. unreal
Again?...
The way I see it Twitter is one of his press release outlets the other Fox entertainment so if he deleted people then he only gives them one other source to find out what is going on in the White House. So if you choose not to watch Fox then Americans are left out
All authoritarians block, jail, or kill their critics and that’s what trump strives to be.
Nope
Tough guy.
Twitter: If the courts rule his account is a personal, will you enforce your rules for the uncountable violations? We all know he has been in gross violation of Twitter rules but we have paraded the idea that this is an official account -even the DOJ of yesteryear agreed.
Critical comments or statements of opposition are fine but obscene rants of vulgar pictures or other symbols should be the issues not political rhetoric of expression of dissent of issues not personal
realDonaldTrump Are you really that weak minded? For being such a 'tough' guy, you really can take much.
If Trump blocked all his critics on Twitter he would be down to about 100 followers.
A duh, of course he can. But, he brings this stuff on himself. If you are going to tweet nonsense, you will receive nonsense. Besides, isn't whatshername his official mouth piece ?
Critics ≠ Trolls.
OMG, this man is a national nightmare.
Nice to see that El Presidente Naranja is trying to do away with the First Amendment.
Man, his social media manager will be working 16 HR shifts to block that tsunami of critical characters! I surmise that at least 25% of his ' followers' on Twitter are people purposely attuned to his bandwidth so they can respond directly to his effusive banter and rhetoric
He's swatting flies with his hands again.
That’s bullshit really. Because most of his tweets are just trolling anyway. So it works both ways.
What a wussy!!
katiecouric I bet your moving on liberals democrat magazine
Bring in Devin Nunes cow
CTrappe So the argument is you can be sued for blocking people on twitter? The level of insanity here is off the charts.. Im blocked by at least 100 celebrities.. can I file a lawsuit? IdiotOlympics
Why not just ban Trump from Twitter. Then he need not worry about blocking anybody. Sacrifice one to prevent the loss of many.
And in other news no one gives a shit about.....
It would open up a serious can of worms if he can’t
He said twitter is his way of talking to the people. The White House said it’s his way of talking to the people so, no. He can’t. A President should talk to the whole country, not a selected few.
Nothing would hurt his ego more than to see his followers drop by half. His critics should stop following him.
Oh, please block me, .realDonaldTrump! I will tout it far and wide, laughing.
He should be able to block all the Russian bots! Those aren’t critics.
I hope not.....his critics are so deranged, offering nothing but insults, have become jokes. Let them keep showing the ignorance and hate. POTUS sixty million followers understand they cannot penetrate the loyalty Trump has!
PLEASE SAY YES!
Let’s hope so.... but if he can’t, that could be the basis of a class action lawsuit against Twitter by previously banned conservatives like Laura Loomer, Milo, Alex Jones, etc
NarcissitInChief CriminalInChief
If it is a 'personal platform' then he is potentially breaking another law - I think they should be careful here - you are running out of 'fences to jump over' 😰
Him twitter so much lie that must how many years for that even though case more add up
But our moroninchief is a public figure, so all of his statements are open to criticism by the people he supposedly services. Just another way to try and become a dictator ImpeachTrump
Can we all agree that ALL major news outlets are an offshoot of Reality TV? Once we do that, we'll be better as a people.
NO.. HE USES TWITTER AS HIS OFFICIAL OFFICE
What a snowflake
katiecouric We already know the law is biased!
Whatever happened to him being a tough guy? All he does is block people, and when he’s not blocking he’s whining about them. Constantly. What a giant baby snowflake.
No. Not if he continues to use as communication from the president to the people.
I blocked Trump when he was elected. Not sure why more people don't follow suit.
Interesting given his Executive Order, last week, forces U.S. colleges to allow Neo-Nazis, Alt-Right, White Supremacists access on campus.
Is Trump President to the few right wing crazies or all the USA? If he wins, he loses in a very real sense. It will make him the President of Crazytown only.
He needs his safe space even on the internet hahahaha
He doesn't need this! We are standing for freedom of speech!😎
Yes. He can. Rules are same for all.
Law Law Latest News, Law Law Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: CNN - 🏆 4. / 95 Read more »