Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald said the blocking of Trump critics - which prevent them from seeing and interacting with the president's tweets - violated the free speech rights of those users guaranteed in the constitution's First Amendment.
Donald Trump. Pic/AFP
President Donald Trump violated the US constitution by blocking Twitter users who disagree with him, a federal judge ruled Wednesday in a case closely watched for implications for online free speech.
ADVERTISEMENT
Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald said the blocking of Trump critics - which prevent them from seeing and interacting with the president's tweets - violated the free speech rights of those users guaranteed in the constitution's First Amendment.
In a 75-page opinion, the New York federal judge said the users "were indisputably blocked as a result of viewpoint discrimination" and that this was "impermissible under the First Amendment."
The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of Twitter users and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. The lawsuit contended that because Trump uses Twitter for a variety of policy announcements, his Twitter account is "a designated public forum" that cannot exclude people due to their political views.
The judge acknowledged that even though the president has certain free speech rights, he cannot violate the rights of other Twitter users. "Because no government official is above the law and because all government officials are presumed to follow the law once the judiciary has said what the law is, we must assume that the president and Scavino will remedy the blocking we have held to be unconstitutional," she wrote.
Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
