NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for President Donald Trump say a judge should reject a lawsuit challenging Trump’s ability to block his critics from following him on Twitter.
The lawyers filed papers late Friday to try to put an end to a Manhattan federal court lawsuit that makes First Amendment claims. They say Trump’s Twitter feed, which has 33 million followers, is not state action.
The lawsuit was filed in July by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and seven people rejected by Trump after criticizing the president.
Jameel Jaffer, the institute’s director, said Trump’s lawyers were wrong in their legal analysis. He said in a statement Saturday that the president is not above the law.
The lawsuit claims Trump’s decision to block some individuals was a viewpoint-based restriction.
Considering his administration established early on that his personal feed amounted to official White House statements, not sure how he can make this argument.
Sorry Donny, you can’t use your twitter feed to announce official policies, like you did with the transgender ban in the military, and then claim that it is for your private use.
I dread to think how much these asses are deleting and shredding and otherwise hiding to avoid the Presidential Records Act, which a few days ago they argued doesn’t apply to them. Yes, the Trumpsters say the Presidential Records Act doesn’t apply to the President and his White House staff.
I think I’m OD-ing on SMH-ing.
When you’re the President, the head of Government, and you block people from expressing themselves, are you not in violation of the 1st Amendment?
After all, Trump’s twitter account is not one of a private citizen with rights to block, but as a public person representing all of us.
If money is speech, certainly speech is speech. Should be an easy one for the Courts.
Yeah I think so. That was my first thought on this. I think it is a violation of the first amendment.
He is the goddam President 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, like it or not, therefore when he acts he acts as President whether he intends to or not - it matters not what his intention is. This is just a violation of the constitution in about 450 ways to Sunday!