The Knight First Amendment Institute said Tuesday it filed a lawsuit arguing that President Trump and his communications team are violating the Constitution through their use of Twitter.
The institute, a project created by Columbia University and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, took issue with Trump blocking various Twitter users from viewing his tweets.
“President Trump’s Twitter account has become an important source of news and information about the government, and an important forum for speech by, to, or about the president,” said Jameel Jaffer, the Knight Institute’s executive director. “The First Amendment applies to this digital forum in the same way it applies to town halls and open school board meetings. The White House acts unlawfully when it excludes people from this forum simply because they’ve disagreed with the president.”
The suit was filed in the Southern District of New York and follows a letter the group sent to the president last month that threatened legal action if the Trump team did not make changes. The suit requests that the court force Trump to remove his Twitter ban on seven users seeking to view his profile and declare such blocking unconstitutional.
