Twitter is in party mode now that we can legally troll Donald Trump
Update, July 9th, 12:30 p.m. EDT: The Washington Post reports that a federal appeals court has upheld the ruling that President Donald Trump is not legally allowed to block critics on Twitter, as part of the First Amendment. This post has been updated to reflect that new ruling.
It’s no secret that President Donald Trump is an avid Twitter user, often unloading his grievances in late-night rants. And the President routinely mocks his opponents…while muting his most vocal critics. At one point, he even blocked Chrissy Teigen. But after a judge ruled on May 23rd, 2018, that Trump’s frequent Twitter blocks are unconstitutional, a federal court of appeals upheld the ruling today, July 9th, and the people of Twitter are officially celebrating.
In case you haven’t heard, the decision was originally made in May 2018 by U.S. District Court Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald, in the Southern District of New York. Buchwald determined that Trump’s Twitter feed counts as a public forum, and therefore his attempts to block seven plaintiffs was a violation of the First Amendment. Rather than forcing Trump to pay a settlement, Buchwald ordered him to unblock them.
"[N]o government official—including the President—is above the law," she wrote in her decision, "and all government officials are presumed to follow the law as has been declared."
A federal appeals court agreed.
"The First Amendment does not permit a public official who utilizes a social media account for all manner of official purposes to exclude persons from an otherwise open online dialogue because they expressed views with which the official disagrees, wrote Judge Barrington D. Parker in the unanimous decision from the court.
While it remains to be seen if Trump will actually follow through and unblock anyone (he had yet to do as of May 24th), many are—unsurprisingly—happy with the symbolic victory.
Teigen was quick to post about the ruling.
well well well we meet again @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/WajEXiAQVi
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) May 23, 2018
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox also rejoiced at the verdict, writing “Yass!”
Yass! @realDonaldTrump, I just want to say: every step you take, every move you make … I'll be watching you. https://t.co/aIDBaxYvU7
— Vicente Fox Quesada (@VicenteFoxQue) May 23, 2018
Others couldn’t contain their excitement.
— Samantha (@Bunnyrosechan86) May 24, 2018
Hey @Rosie !!!!!@realDonaldTrump has to unblock you!!!!!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣#Twitter #trumptwitter #unblock
— Richard Garcia (@TheRealGarcia01) May 24, 2018
Oh hai @realdonaldtrump! If you need to unblock thousands (tens of thousands?) of people in a hurry, perhaps due to court order, you can do it 1 by 1 but it's a lot easier to use https://t.co/HswTF8YZED and then do mass unblocking.
— Laura Packard (@lpackard) May 23, 2018
Can we get some footage of his tiny fingers unblocking us? https://t.co/dNbKBO1kxR
— Brandon Neely (@BrandonTXNeely) May 23, 2018
hahahahahahah everyone on twitter can block people except @realDonaldTrump, sucks you be you man
— Shuja Haider (@shujaxhaider) May 23, 2018
— Stewbaca (@stewbaca_1) May 23, 2018
So a judge has ruled that Trump can’t block people for disagreeing with him any more. Poor man. Eventually he may be forced to actually listen to the American people.
He’ll just call anything they say fake news though anyhow.
— Chris (@goingglocal) May 24, 2018
The real tragedy is Trump can’t even block Kim Jong-un now
— TrivWorks (@TrivWorks) May 24, 2018
So now that a Court has ruled that @realDonaldTrump can't block you for being critical of him …what's the point of Twitter? I had hopes and dreams, aspirations of some day being blocked. They tell you, that in America you can grow up to be anything you want, I'm crushed😖
— Black Betty says 🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine (@WhoaBlackBetty5) May 24, 2018
While we’re still not sure whether Trump will actually stop blocking people he disagrees with, we’re glad to see that our right to free speech is alive and well—at least on Twitter, anyway.
Originally posted May 24th, 2018.
