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posted by martyb on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the silence-all-disagreement-and-only-agreement-will-be-seen dept.

Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute has filed a lawsuit against President Trump for blocking seven users on Twitter, claiming that the action violates the users' First Amendment right to participate in a public political forum:

The institute filed suit today on behalf of seven Twitter users who were blocked by the president, which prevents them from seeing or replying to his tweets. It threatened legal action in a letter to Trump in June, and now "asks the court to declare that the viewpoint-based blocking of people from the @realDonaldTrump account is unconstitutional."

The lawsuit, which was filed in the Southern District of New York, elaborates on the Knight Institute's earlier letter. It contends that Trump's Twitter account is a public political forum where citizens have a First Amendment right to speak. Under this theory, blocking users impedes their right to participate in a political conversation and stops them from viewing official government communication. Therefore, if Trump blocks people for criticizing his political viewpoints, he'd be doing the equivalent of kicking them out of a digital town hall.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @03:04PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @03:04PM (#538120)

    I cannot board a plane anonymously. Does this mean flying is members only? And if so, what organization do I need to be member of in order to board a plane?

  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday July 12 2017, @03:09PM

    by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday July 12 2017, @03:09PM (#538122)

    That's not analogous. You need to join Twitter to post. Then you're a Twitter member.

    --
    "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @06:42PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @06:42PM (#538232)

    I cannot board a plane anonymously.

    You used to be able to, and you should be able to, at least if it's a flight from one place in the US to another.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 13 2017, @01:57PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 13 2017, @01:57PM (#538687)

      You used to be able to

      No, not true. It never worked like the train system with a conductor walking down the aisles saying "tickets, please!"