Trump's blocking of critics on Twitter violates Constitution: U.S. judge

[webfact]

Trump's blocking of critics on Twitter violates Constitution: U.S. judge

By Brendan Pierson

 

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media before departing the White House for a trip to New York, in Washington, U.S. May 23, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge in New York on Wednesday ruled that President Donald Trump may not legally block Twitter users from his account on the social media platform based on their political views.

 

Trump has made his @RealDonaldTrump Twitter account an integral and controversial part of his presidency, using it to promote his agenda, announce policy and attack critics. He has blocked many critics from his account, which prevents them from directly responding to his tweets.

 

U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan ruled that comments on the president's account, and those of other government officials, were public forums, and that blocking Twitter users for their views violated their right to free speech under the First Amendment of Constitution.

 

Eugene Volokh, a University of California Los Angeles School of Law professor who specializes in First Amendment issues, said the decision’s effect would reach beyond Trump.

 

“It would end up applying to a wide range of government officials throughout the country,” he said.

 

The U.S. Department of Justice, which represents Trump in the case, said, "We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision and are considering our next steps."

 

Twitter Inc <TWTR.N>, which is not a party to the lawsuit, declined to comment on the ruling.

 

Buchwald's ruling was in response to a First Amendment lawsuit filed against Trump in July by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and several Twitter users.

 

The individual plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Philip Cohen, a sociology professor at the University of Maryland; Holly Figueroa, described in the complaint as a political organizer and songwriter in Washington state; and Brandon Neely, a Texas police officer.

 

Cohen, who was blocked from Trump's account last June after posting an image of the president with words "Corrupt Incompetent Authoritarian," said he was "delighted" with Wednesday's decision.

 

"This increases my faith in the system a little," he said.

 

Novelists Stephen King and Anne Rice, comedian Rosie O'Donnell, model Chrissy Teigen, actress Marina Sirtis and the military veterans political action committee VoteVets.org are among the others who have said on Twitter that Trump blocked them.

 

Buchwald rejected the argument by Justice Department lawyers that Trump's own First Amendment rights allowed him to block people with whom he did not wish to interact.

 

"While we must recognize, and are sensitive to, the president’s personal First Amendment rights, he cannot exercise those rights in a way that infringes the corresponding First Amendment rights of those who have criticized him," Buchwald said.

 

She said Trump could "mute" users, meaning he would not see their tweets while they could still respond to his, without violating their free speech rights.

 

Duke University constitutional law professor Stuart Benjamin said he disagreed with Buchwald's finding that parts of Trump and other officials' Twitter accounts were public forums. He said he thought such a designation would require a more explicit statement to that effect by the government.

 

“If Donald Trump is giving a speech to 100 hand-picked people, and one of them heckles him, he gets to throw that person out,” said Benjamin, adding that he thought the president had a strong chance of winning an appeal of Buchwald's decision.

 

Buchwald stopped short of ordering Trump to unblock users. Trump had argued that the court did not have the power to issue a direct order against the president.

 

The judge said she disagreed, but that there was no need to get into a "legal thicket" over the issue because she assumed Trump or his social media director Dan Scavino, who also was a defendant in the case, would unblock the users in light of her decision.

 

Cohen said Trump had not yet unblocked him as of late Wednesday afternoon.

 

"Personally, I’m skeptical that he will take that step without more legal pressure," he said.

 

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; additional reporting by David Shephardson and David Ingram; editing by Anthony Lin, Franklin Paul, Jonathan Oatis and Cynthia Osterman)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-05-24

[Damrongsak]

Gosh.  Isn't there a way to right-click and send a "bite a big one"  message to the poster?  This is Twitter.  I hear birds out in the yard outside my home tweeting stuff that sounds much worse.

[Sir Dude]

You would have thought all these people would have something better to do or more pressing matters to sort out.

[Damrongsak]

1 minute ago, Sir Dude said:

You would have thought all these people would have something better to do or more pressing matters to sort out.

Golf and minding investments gets boring after a time, as does governing if you don't have a few scams going on the side.  They'll get it sorted out when they grow up. 

[UncleTouchyFingers]

47 minutes ago, webfact said:

Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald

 

Clinton appointee, Manhattan, etc...

 

And she didn't issue an injunction, just a "declaration" (meaningless) so Trump can still do whatever he wants. 

 

Just more feel-good liberal nothing-burgers and politicization of the judicial process. 

 

Although this will surely make the liberal nazis feel great for a half-second until they realize its all just an attention grab. 

 

The greater crime is Twitter itself (and facebook) openly filtering conservative free speech under the guise of "improving the conversation".  

[Boon Mee]

I'm sure Trump will just ignore this frivolous ruling for if it were upheld it would open the door to allow unblocking of all Twitter users. 

[Chomper Higgot]

30 minutes ago, UncleTouchyFingers said:

 

Clinton appointee, Manhattan, etc...

 

And she didn't issue an injunction, just a "declaration" (meaningless) so Trump can still do whatever he wants. 

 

Just more feel-good liberal nothing-burgers and politicization of the judicial process. 

 

Although this will surely make the liberal nazis feel great for a half-second until they realize its all just an attention grab. 

 

The greater crime is Twitter itself (and facebook) openly filtering conservative free speech under the guise of "improving the conversation".  

I’m willing to lay odds you’ll want to change your username by the time the crimes of your man Trump are exposed.

[attrayant]

43 minutes ago, Boon Mee said:

if it were upheld it would open the door to allow unblocking of all Twitter users. 

 

And what's wrong with that?  You have a problem with freedom of speech WRT our elected officials?

[The Renegade]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

A U.S. judge in New York on Wednesday ruled that President Donald Trump may not legally block Twitter users from his account on the social media platform based on their political views.

Seriously. This got as far as Court ?

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

57 minutes ago, Boon Mee said:

I'm sure Trump will just ignore this frivolous ruling for if it were upheld it would open the door to allow unblocking of all Twitter users. 

Just another example of the anti Trump brigade using any stick with which to beat him. I've never used that social media irrelevance, and have no idea how it works, but it's apparently like TVF in that it allows users to block people they want to ignore, and it would be a real pain if TVF were to remove my ability to ignore certain posters. 

I'm sure the Founding Fathers never imagined an insane world such as we live in where people actually think silliness like social media was of such actual importance it had to be governed by the constitution. As I see it, social media, and I include TVF in that, is just people chatting with each other, and is of no more import than what people burble on about down at the pub. After all, we get to say whatever we think, and it's just our opinions.

[thaibeachlovers]

24 minutes ago, attrayant said:

 

And what's wrong with that?  You have a problem with freedom of speech WRT our elected officials?

I take it you also think we should have no right to put posters we don't like on "ignore" ( on TVF ). Same same, different forum.

 

Since when was twitter an official government platform? The rules apply to ALL twitter users, and Trump can't be singled out for different treatment than anyone else.

When Trump demands politicians he doesn't like being banned from the house when he give his state of the union address there will be valid reason to object.

Edited May 24, 2018 by thaibeachlovers

[Slip]

5 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I take it you also think we should have no right to put posters we don't like on "ignore" ( on TVF ). Same same, different forum.

It isn't the same Thaibeachlovers- in fact it works the opposite way.  If I were to block you on here in the same way, you would not be able to see, react, or reply to my posts, rather than me yours.

[thaibeachlovers]

1 hour ago, Boon Mee said:

I'm sure Trump will just ignore this frivolous ruling for if it were upheld it would open the door to allow unblocking of all Twitter users. 

She didn't make it mandatory to actually do anything, as she knows she'd get a hiding from the appeals court if she had. I'm assuming that Trump will just put this judgement in file 13, as not worth worrying about.

[thaibeachlovers]

Just now, Slip said:

It isn't the same Thaibeachlovers- in fact it works the opposite way.  If I were to block you on here in the same way, you would not be able to see, react, or reply to my posts, rather than me yours.

I fail to see the difference.

In a history of nothingburgers, this pseudo attack on Trump must be the largest. When Trump's opponents are reduced to attacking him over who can attack him on twitter, they really don't have anything better to do so with.

[NanLaew]

18 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Since when was twitter an official government platform?

Since DJT became POTUS?

 

Before that, social media was all about how many friends one had on FB anbd food porn.

 

DJT has politicized twitter. Agreed it isn't an 'official' .gov media stream but DJT uses it relentlessly to litmus test some of his ideas and opinions and based on the uptake or advice from legal counsel or his staff, it either flies or gets buried.

[The Renegade]

2 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

DJT has politicized twitter. Agreed it isn't an 'official' .gov media stream but DJT uses it relentlessly to litmus test some of his ideas and opinions and based on the uptake or advice from legal counsel or his staff, it either flies or gets buried.

Come on, the same happens in the UK, only politicians use the media instead of Tw@tter.

[thaibeachlovers]

3 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

Since DJT became POTUS?

 

Before that, social media was all about how many friends one had on FB anbd food porn.

 

DJT has politicized twitter. Agreed it isn't an 'official' .gov media stream but DJT uses it relentlessly to litmus test some of his ideas and opinions and based on the uptake or advice from legal counsel or his staff, it either flies or gets buried.

So, as you agree it isn't an official medium, you also have to agree it can't be regulated like official communication is. 

[Chomper Higgot]

20 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I fail to see the difference.

In a history of nothingburgers, this pseudo attack on Trump must be the largest. When Trump's opponents are reduced to attacking him over who can attack him on twitter, they really don't have anything better to do so with.

Or.

 

Illiberals cling to this trivial criticism of Trump in the hope they might tar the very much more serious investigations as similarly trivial.

 

So in a sense I agree with you, this is a minor matter, but please give up this nonsense that there are not very valid, very serious and very credible accusations against your man Trump.

 

 

The truth will (despite Trump’s best efforts) out.

 

[Becker]

2 hours ago, UncleTouchyFingers said:

The greater crime is Twitter itself (and facebook) openly filtering conservative free speech under the guise of "improving the conversation".  

I'm sure you can back up this statement with credible links as otherwise it would mean you're pulling things out of a certain body cavity - just like the man-child is fond of doing.

[Andaman Al]

If anyone goes on twitter spouting racism, hatred, personal attacks, divisiveness etc etc they lose their account. So just why does DJT still have a twitter account?

[attrayant]

31 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I fail to see the difference.

 

Everybody else seems to understand it except for you.  Maybe you should reflect on that.

 

Trump's own spokespeople and his own justice dcepartment have said that Trump's Twitter statements are official position statement issued by the office.

[Get Real]

What do you really expect from a clown? That he should know what is right and wrong, lawful or unlawful?

Please show some respect to human intelligence!

[thaibeachlovers]

I see this thread has degenerated into the usual Trump hatefest, so I'll leave you to enjoying who can come up with the best Trump insults.

Bye.

[Andaman Al]

3 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I see this thread has degenerated into the usual Trump hatefest, so I'll leave you to enjoying who can come up with the best Trump insults.

Bye.

Any thread will end up as a Trump hatefest because.............the overwhelming majority of literate people do in fact hate Trump and everything he stands for. So Byeeeeeeeee, we're missing you already....not.

[spidermike007]

Just another example of the most thin skinned, and insecure man on the planet, doing everything in his power, to avoid the slightest bit of criticism. Napolean did not like criticism either. Neither did Amin, Mugabe, Himmler, Stalin, or Marcos. Give this man enough rope, and he will hang himself. 

[Chomper Higgot]

20 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I see this thread has degenerated into the usual Trump hatefest, so I'll leave you to enjoying who can come up with the best Trump insults.

Bye.

I have some sympathy for you over this.

 

You’ve spent months defending Trump, but despite all your efforts the news just keeps getting worse.

 

A retreat is wise, spending some time looking at the reality of Trump’s lies and the mounting evidence of his criminality would be wiser.

[Odysseus123]

The sooner every politician gets off Twitter/Facebook/Raw Prawn/the better off we will be.

 

As for the SUPREME TWIT-who can say...?

[riclag]

1 hour ago, Andaman Al said:

If anyone goes on twitter spouting racism, hatred, personal attacks, divisiveness etc etc they lose their account. So just why does DJT still have a twitter account?

"Twitter says Trump’s North Korea tweets don’t violate its policy against violent threats"

"Among the considerations is "newsworthiness" and whether a Tweet is of public interest 3/6".

 

https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/9/26/16367510/twitter-trump-threats-not-policy-violations

The Greatest show on earth and your witnessing it. Because it's newsworthy .Billions of dollars being generated and exchanged through the Trump  phenomenon . Anything about him can be marketed.Twitter is just another entity worshiping the Cha Ching -Cha Ching  .

 

Edited May 24, 2018 by riclag

[Gramps]

I'll admit that I enjoy seeing Trump judicially smacked, but if this means that no-one can block Trolls anymore, it could prove to be a dangerously ill-considered precedent.

[FitnessHealthTravel]

It's such BS. NYC Judge, how more bias can he get.  This will be overturned for sure. All he has to do is set up another account and make that the Professional, Government Official one (and never post to it) then use his current account as a personal one if worse comes to worse.