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.
?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
@realDonaldTrump not his official Govt. Twitter
account.
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