The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York on the behalf of seven individual Twitter users who have been blocked by the president or his team, affirms that the block impedes the individuals from reading, responding to or participating in discussions around the president’s tweets. The lawsuit asks the court to declare the blocks unconstitutional and to order the White House to restore access to the people named in it. In addition to arguing that the account is a “public forum,” the suit also claims that the individuals have a right to @readDonaldTrump for redress of grievances.
In addition, the blocks prevent everyone else from hearing dissenting voices. “The White House is transforming a public forum into an echo chamber,” said Knight Institute attorney Katie Fallow in a statement. “Its actions violate the rights of the people who’ve been blocked and the rights of those who haven’t been blocked but who now participate in a forum that’s being sanitized of dissent.”
