The June 14, 2018 post “The President May Not Block Twitter Followers Because They Disagree With Him Politically” reported how, in the decision of the District Court in Knight First Amendment Inst. at Columbia University v. Trump, 302 F.Supp.3d 541 (S.D.N.Y. 2018), the court found that the President’s decision to block certain social media users from accessing his Twitter account was unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. On July 9, 2019 a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed.

In reaching this decision, the Second Circuit rejected the President’s arguments that (1) he was exercising control over a private, personal Twitter account and (2) his Twitter account not only is not a public forum, but, even if it was, the plaintiffs were not prevented from accessing the forum. The Second Circuit was not persuaded and held as follows:

We conclude that the evidence of the official nature of the Account is overwhelming. We also conclude that once the President has chosen a platform and opened up its interactive space to millions of users and participants, he may not selectively exclude those whose views he disagrees with.

It remains to be seen if the President will appeal this decision to the Supreme Court.

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For any questions relating to this article, please contact Robert B. Nussbaum, Esq. at Saiber LLC.

Rob Nussbaum

Rob Nussbaum has lectured numerous times on legal issues and social media and how social media and other electronic evidence may be admitted into evidence at trial. He concentrates his practice in general commercial litigation and appears regularly in New Jersey federal and state courts.

For any questions relating to whether your website or social media presence can be used against you as a basis for personal jurisdiction, please contact Robert B. Nussbaum, Esq. at Saiber LLC.