Free Speech Group Threatens to Sue Trump if he Doesn’t Unblock Blocked Twitter Users – Heat Street

Afirst amendment institute sent a letter to President Trump demanding he unblock all people hes blocked on Twitter or face legal action.

The Knight First Amendment Institute, which sent the letter, argues that the President, by blocking his critics, has violated the First Amendment rights of those people.

In a letter sent [yesterday] to President Trump, the Knight First Amendment Institute asked the President to unblock the Twitter accounts of individuals denied access to his account after they criticized or disagreed with him, or face legal action to protect the First Amendment rights of the blocked individuals, the Institutes press release read.

According to the Institute, Trumps Twitter account is a designated public forum and therefore subjected to the constitutionalfree speech guarantees that prohibits the government from silencing people in public places due to their views.

The Knight Institute asked the President to unblock its clients, or to direct his subordinates to do so, the release added.

Multiple people have recently taken to Twitter toannounce that they were blocked by the President on Twitter. A Jimmy Kimmel Live! comedy writer, Bess Kalb, wasblocked by Trump because, according to him, she hurt his feelings. (Most likely its due to her lame jokes.)

Some users have suggested the comedy writer contact the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and sue Trump for violating The Presidential Records Act whichguarantees the public have access to Trumps public records, in this case they mean his Twitter feed.

The Institute documented another case where a person was blocked by Trump. A Twitter user named @@AynRandPaulRyan was blocked after tweeting at Trump a gifof the Pope lookinggloomy.

Jameel Jaffer, the Knight Institutes executive director, claimed This is a context in which the Constitution precludes the President from making up his own rules.

Though the architects of the Constitution surely didnt contemplate presidential Twitter accounts, they understood that the President must not be allowed to banish views from public discourse simply because he finds them objectionable. Having opened this forum to all comers, the President cant exclude people from it merely because he dislikes what theyre saying.

Senior litigator at the Institute, Katie Fallow, meanwhile, said that When new communications platforms are developed, core First Amendment principles cannot be left behind.

The First Amendment disallows the President from blocking critics on Twitter just as it disallows mayors from ejecting critics from town halls.

Some First Amendmentexperts, however, werent sure theres a case to be made that the President must unblock the blocked users.Neil Richards, a professor at Washington Universitys law school, specializing in First Amendment theory, told WIREDthat The question of whether the Presidents Twitter feed is a public forum is a more complicated question.

The law here is famously muddled, because its trying to prevent the government from discriminating against people who speak on public streets and parks, but its trying to fight the urge to make everything a public forum.

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Free Speech Group Threatens to Sue Trump if he Doesn't Unblock Blocked Twitter Users - Heat Street