First Amendment backers sue Trump over Twitter blocking

NEW YORK — First Amendment advocates sued President Donald Trump on Tuesday, saying it is unconstitutional to block his critics from following him on Twitter.

The Manhattan federal court lawsuit from the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University cited seven individuals rejected by Trump or his aides after criticizing the president. Besides Trump, the lawsuit also names 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 to block individuals from following the president’s 8-year-old @realdonaldtrump account.

Trump doesn’t seem to be the only politician trying to limit his audience. Jaffer said numerous people have said they were blocked from 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 addressed the issue, Jaffer said.

The lawsuit asks a judge to stop Trump and his media team from blocking critics 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, blocking people from following Trump’s account was a viewpoint-based restriction the U.S. Constitution doesn’t allow.

It noted that Trump on 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 that Trump’s tweets should be understood as “official statements of the president of the United States.”