President Trump forced to unblock dozens of Twitter users after court ruling

If the President of the United States blocks you on Twitter, that means he’s violating your First Amendment rights.

Donald Trump has been forced to unblock 41 Twitter users who had apparently irked the President on the social media platform. However, this isn’t a choice Trump willingly made. A federal judge ruled that the tweets posted on the President’s account are public forums and blocking a user violated their Constitutional right to free speech.

Back in May of this year, a judge ruled on Trump’s Twitter blocking practices after the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University filed a lawsuit on behalf of 7 Twitter users who were blocked by the President. The suit argued that Trump blocked the plaintiffs after they criticized the president, which constituted “viewpoint discrimination.” Being that the President’s Twitter, @RealDonaldTrump, is a public forum, that would be in violation of their First Amendment rights to free speech. U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan agreed with the plaintiffs.

“The president’s practice of blocking critics on Twitter is pernicious and unconstitutional, and we hope this ruling will bring it to an end,” Jameel Jaffer, the Knight Institute’s executive director, said in a statement at the time.

Those 7 users — which included comedian Nick Pappas, surgeon and anti-Trump Twitter personality Dr. Eugene Gu, and DailyKOS editor and legal analyst Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza —  were unblocked by Trump in June. Yet, months later, many Twitter users who ‘@’ replied their opinions to Trump remained blocked by the President.

Earlier this month, the Knight First Amendment Institute sent a letter to the U.S. Justice Department requesting the President comply with judge’s ruling. Along with the letter was a list of 41 accounts that Trump still blocked. Yesterday, these users — which includes TV producer and frequent Trump critic Danny Zuker, MoveOn activist Jordan Uhl, and journalists like Alex Kotch and Jules Suzdaltsev — were unblocked by the President’s Twitter account.

After the ruling in May, the Justice Department complained about the decision, claiming that Trump’s @RealDonaldTrump Twitter account “belongs to Donald Trump in his personal capacity and is subject to his personal control, not the control of the government.” While the judge disagreed, she did allow the President a bit of a workaround. While Trump would violate Twitter users’ rights with a block, the President could use the “mute” feature, which would still give them the ability to view and reply to his tweets, even though he can’t see their posts. 

It’s important to note that the President’s Twitter account seems to have only unblocked the accounts mentioned in the list sent to the DOJ. Many users are still blocked by Trump, as Rosie O’Donnell pointed out.

Laura Packard is a stage 4 cancer survivor, health care activist, co-chair of Health Care Voter, and one of the 41 Twitter users the President just unblocked. Packard was blocked by Trump last year while criticizing the Republicans’ plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.

“I’m pleased that the President of the United States is following the law and doing what the courts told him to do, which is to respect our first amendment rights and unblock critics on Twitter,” Packard said in a statement to Mashable. “I would hope that our President had more important things to do than spend all day on Twitter, but since he does not, we should at least have the right to correct his fake news, demagoguery and racist dog-whistles as needed.”