It’s minor compared to his other scandals, but Trump has gotten roasted repeatedly for his behavior on Twitter, whether he’s causing diplomatic problems or just having his past statements boomerang right in his face. And now, his Twitter feed might once again see him dragged to court, this time over his penchant for blocking people who criticize him.
Reuters reports that the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University took the first step to dragging Trump into court with a letter informing him that blocking members of the American public on Twitter violates the First Amendment. If Trump were just a private American citizen venting on social media, it’d be one thing. But since, as Sean Spicer made clear, his tweets are official proclamations of the President, that means he’s cutting off taxpayers from viewing public statements from a government official. Since, technically speaking, everything Trump tweets is paid for by taxpayers, that’s not Constitutional.
How far the Knight Institute intends to take this is a good question. But they have a fairly compelling case, and, more importantly, a common-sense one. After all, if you’re the President of the United States, you get buried under criticism no matter how good a job you do, and taking it is just part of the job.
(via Reuters)