A federal judge of the Southern District of New York held that President Trump violated the First Amendment by “blocking” individuals from his @realDonaldTrump twitter account in response to the political views expressed by those individuals. The lawsuit was brought by several twitter users who were blocked from viewing or replying to the President’s tweets after expressing political views critical of the President.
The judge found that President Trump uses the account in his capacity as a public official, not a private individual, as he uses the account for governmental functions. Further, the judge found that the President’s twitter account constituted a designated public forum, and that by blocking individuals based on their political speech, the President violated the First Amendment by engaging in viewpoint discrimination. While the judge did not grant injunctive relief requiring the President to unblock the users, she did grant declaratory relief by clarifying the requirements of the Constitution.
This ruling serves as an important warning to public officials to be careful when using social media, even in their “personal capacity.” Public officials who use social media to discuss public issues, may need to tolerate comments more than private users. Public officials who block members of the public from social media accounts due to the content of their posts may be violating the First Amendment.
The case is: Knight First Amendment Inst. at Columbia Univ. v. Trump (May 23, 2018).
For any questions, contact Melanie Williamson (mwilliamson@fisheldowney.com).