Trump blocking Twitter critics violates First Amendment, lawsuit says – Chicago Tribune

First Amendment advocates sued President DonaldTrumpon Tuesday, saying it is unconstitutional toblockhis critics from following him onTwitter.

The Manhattan federal court lawsuit from the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University cited seven individuals rejected byTrumpor his aides after criticizing the president. BesidesTrump, the lawsuit also named as defendants White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and Dan Scavino, White House director of social media.

Jameel Jaffer, the institute's director, said dozens of people reached out after his organization told the White House three weeks ago that it wasn't permitted toblockindividuals from following the president's 8-year-old @realdonaldtrump account.

Trumpdoesn't seem to be the only politician trying to limit his audience. Jaffer said numerous people have said they wereblockedfrom the accounts of Republican and Democratic politicians after posting critical comments.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., recently ruled that a local official's Facebook account was a public forum under the First Amendment, but higher courts have not yet addressed the issue, Jaffer said.

"It's fair to say that this is a new frontier," Jaffer said. "The First Amendment principle is well-settled, but the applicability of that principle to this context isn't an issue that the courts have yet had many occasions to address."

The lawsuit asks a judge to stopTrumpand his media team fromblockingcritics from following his personal account, which has 33 million followers, 14 million more than @POTUS and 19 million more than @WhiteHouse.

Dawn Dearden, a spokeswoman for government lawyers, declined to comment.

According to the lawsuit,blockingpeople from followingTrump'saccount was a viewpoint-based restriction the U.S. Constitution doesn't allow.

It noted thatTrumpon July 2 tweeted: "My use of social media is not Presidential it's MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL." It also quoted Spicer saying a month earlier at a press conference thatTrump'stweets should be understood as "official statements of the president of the United States."

Federal agencies and courts treatTrump'stweets as official statements, and The National Archives and Records Administration has advised the White House that the tweets must be preserved under the Presidential Records Act, the lawsuit said.

Among plaintiffs was Rebecca Buckwalter, a Washington-based writer and political consultant who wasblockedfrom the account on June 6 after she replied toTrump'stweet saying he would have had "ZERO chance winning WH" if he'd relied on "Fake News" from major media outlets. Buckwalter received over 9,000 likes and 3,300 retweets after posting: "To be fair you didn't win the WH: Russia won it for you," according to the lawsuit.

Others to beblockedincluded Philip Cohen, a University of Maryland sociology professor who calledTrumpa "Corrupt Incompetent Authoritarian," and Holly Figueroa, a national political organizer and songwriter who was cut off May 28 after posting an image of the pope looking incredulously atTrump, along with the statement: "This is pretty much how the whole world sees you," the lawsuit said.

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Trump blocking Twitter critics violates First Amendment, lawsuit says - Chicago Tribune