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Posted on 07/11/2017 5:18:44 PM PDT by Stopthethreat
WASHINGTON — A group of Twitter users blocked by President Trump sued him and two top White House aides on Tuesday, arguing that his account amounts to a public forum that he, as a government official, cannot bar people from.
The blocked Twitter users, represented by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, raised cutting-edge issues about how the Constitution applies to the social-media era. They say Mr. Trump cannot bar people from engaging with his account because they expressed opinions he did not like, such as mocking or criticizing him.
“The @realDonaldTrump account is a kind of digital town hall in which the president and his aides use the tweet function to communicate news and information to the public, and members of the public use the reply function to respond to the president and his aides and exchange views with one another,” the lawsuit said.
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By blocking people from reading his tweets, or from viewing and replying to message chains based on them, Mr. Trump is violating their First Amendment rights because they expressed views he did not like, the lawsuit argued.
It offered several theories to back that notion. They included arguments that Mr. Trump was imposing an unconstitutional restriction on the plaintiffs’ ability to participate in a designated public forum, get access to statements the government had otherwise made available to the public and petition the government for “redress of grievances.”
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
This is a frivolous lawsuit, but with so many judges citing Nevertrumpism as law, who knows?
Even if it is a public forum, the users have no right to force the President to allow their spew to reach the millions or hundreds of thousands of followers that signed up to see what President Trump has to say.
No, it is a digital bully pulpit. It is not designed to be a two-way conversation, unless the user desires that.
And some people simply need to have duct tape liberally applied to their vocal orifices.
Then Twitter has to be sued for same because they are blocking pro Trump reply to Trump tweets and Promoting anti trump tweets to the the head of the line on Trumps twitter site
A Frivolous lawsuit! @realDonaldTrump is a personal twitter account, even if part of gov secured network. @POTUS is a Government one associated with the office of President.
So, imho, that is going nowhere, eventually; just one more thing to stop Trump from doing his job as President!
A Frivolous lawsuit! @realDonaldTrump is a personal twitter account, even if part of gov secured network. @POTUS is a Government one associated with the office of President.
So, imho, that is going nowhere, eventually; just one more thing to stop Trump from doing his job as President!
A Frivolous lawsuit! @realDonaldTrump is a personal twitter account, even if part of gov secured network. @POTUS is a Government one associated with the office of President.
So, imho, that is going nowhere, eventually; just one more thing to stop Trump from doing his job as President!
It’s not THEIR public forum. They can use their own account.
@realDonaldTrump on twitter existed before he was POTUS. He can block anyone he wants to block.
He hasn’t blocked enough of those loonies for me. I’ve seen many of the replies and those people wouldn’t be able to yell their garbage back at press conferences so they shouldn’t be doing it on his, or anyone’s, Twitter account if the owners don’t want it.
If they succeed then any government official’s Twitter and Facebook accounts cannot be blocked if they ever post to a public forum.
I love it when liberals waste their money.
It’s time for loser pays. The communist “democrats” are abusing our worthless judicial system to stop Americans from defending and saving their country.
“Twitter” is a private entity not a government entity, regardless of whether government or other public figures create accounts for themselves there.
Twitter users are private citizens just as Twitter is a private enterprise, regardless of the fact that participation is open to the public.
The rules provided to Twitter account holders is the same as any other private contract, and they do not constitute a “governmental” restraint of speech.
There is no Constitutional issue, merely because Mr Trump happens to be POTUS. He is a private citizen Twitter account holder as all Twitter account holders are. On Twitter he has the same rights as do all Twitter account holders.
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