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President Trump's practice of blocking Twitter users who are critical of him from seeing his posts on the social media platform violates the First Amendment, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled on Wednesday.
The ruling came in a case brought by seven Twitter users who had been blocked by the @realDonaldTrump account after they criticized the president.
The plaintiffs, who were joined in the suit by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, claimed that Mr. Trump's Twitter feed is an official government account and that blocking users from following it was a violation of their First Amendment rights.
In her ruling, Federal District Court Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald wrote of the plaintiffs that "the speech in which they seek to engage is protected by the First Amendment" and that Mr. Trump and Dan Scavino, the White House social media director, "exert governmental control over certain aspects of the @realDonaldTrump account."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/business/media/trump-twitter-block.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes
See also: http://time.com/4808270/sean-spicer-donald-trump-twitter-statements/:
When asked at a press briefing whether Trump's tweets qualify as official statements on behalf of the White House, Spicer said that he "is the President of the United States, so they're considered official statements by the President of the United States."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by NewNic on Friday May 25 2018, @06:24PM (3 children)
And you would be wrong with one of those statements. The administration has already stated that what is he writes using his twitter account is government policy.
You would be correct that they are likely to not be connected to reality.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 4, Interesting) by edIII on Friday May 25 2018, @07:28PM (2 children)
There's a different way to look at it. It's official policy that *whatever* plane the U.S President is on has its call sign changed to "Air Force One". Unless I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure about that. So you may be able to look at it as wherever, and however, the President addresses the people, it intrinsically becomes official communications.
He's a fucking dipshit showman, so he's quite used to the idea of exclusivity and controlling who can see him and can't see him. That's a pretty standard practice in entertainment and marketing. That's long gone though the instant the inauguration was performed.
Whether he likes it or not, the inane babbling coming out of his mouth is official. I don't believe the President could even speak in unofficial capacity. It's like the Pope saying, "Okay, just for the next few minutes I'm not speaking as the Pope..". Nobody would believe that, and it wouldn't be unreasonable for church members to still interpret it as official Pope communications.
The only exceptions I believe, are when the President is clearly not addressing the people at all, but is involved in private meetings considering classified information and operations. Even then, I do believe that the minutes of the meeting are recorded for posterity, but not available for decades likely.
In the end, that horrid man must accept that he is *EVERYONE'S* President, and then he does not have the moral or legal authority to deny a citizen the contents of his official speech. I don't even believe he can mute people, because we have a right to address our politicians and list our grievances.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25 2018, @10:23PM (1 child)
An aircraft flown by the marines is Marine One. (that fat green helicopter) An aircraft flown by the navy is Navy One. (for example, Bush going to the aircraft carrier) An aircraft flown by the army is Army One.
Everything else is Executive One. Nixon did it, flying on United as some sort of endorsement for commercial aviation. It would be Executive One if Trump flew in his personal jet.
I suppose that means a wingsuit or hang glider can be Executive One.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @09:57AM
Did they break his guitar?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo [youtube.com]