Seven Twitter users have filed a lawsuit against US President Donald Trump for blocking them on twitter, thereby violating the Constitution. According to Newsweek, the Twitter users, who are being represented by the Knight First Amendment Institute, filed a suit on Tuesday, claiming that Trump's viewpoint-based blocking is unconstitutional and imposes an unconstitutional restriction on their participation in a designated public forum.
The institute asked a judge to rule Trump's actions of blocking their clinets unlawful and force him to unblock them and also pay their legal fees.
The Knight First Amendment Institute's argument states that: The president's Twitter is a public forum, and Trump is squashing his critics' free speech rights by blocking them on the basis of their political views. There is no legal or constitutional precedent for a commander-in-chief who uses Twitter as a freewheeling venue to escalate feuds and block those who disagree with or mock him.@realDonaldTrump not his official Govt. Twitter account.
The institute asked a judge to rule Trump's actions of blocking their clinets unlawful and force him to unblock them and also pay their legal fees.
The Knight First Amendment Institute's argument states that: The president's Twitter is a public forum, and Trump is squashing his critics' free speech rights by blocking them on the basis of their political views. There is no legal or constitutional precedent for a commander-in-chief who uses Twitter as a freewheeling venue to escalate feuds and block those who disagree with or mock him.
The First Amendment applies to this digital forum in the same way it applies to town halls and open school board meetings, the Knight Institute told reporters.
The White House acts unlawfully when it excludes people from this forum simply because they've disagreed with the president.
"The idea that a public official could block citizens from hearing their official speech just because they don't agree with what that person thinks is contrary to basic ideas of the First Amendment." Katie Fallow, a senior fellow at the Knight Institute, said.
"It's analogous to the public participation component of a town hall. Allowing people to get up and speak and discuss the issues with each other is such an important part of civic discourse. To block certain speakers just because they're critical is dangerous and unconstitutional.The account these twitter users filed a lawsuit against is Trump's personal Twitter account
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