May 24, 2018

Trolling Judge Blocks Trump From Blocking Twitter Trolls

She declares that Trump’s blocking of critics on his private account violates the First Amendment.

U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald ruled on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s practice of blocking trolls and critics from his Twitter feed is unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment. In her 75-page opinion, Buchwald declared that since Trump had become president, his private Twitter account could no longer be deemed private but was now a “designated public forum,” and therefore “the blocking of the individual plaintiffs as a result of the political views they have expressed is impermissible under the First Amendment.”

There are obviously several problems with this ruling, one of which is the effective reclassification of Twitter from a privately controlled company to government-run utility. Does the judge’s ruling comport with Twitter’s user agreement? Not in the least. Buchwald has unilaterally taken away control of a social media company’s forum and turned it over to the government. National Review’s David French explains, “Using Twitter isn’t like renting out a concert hall or reserving space in a public park. Twitter is in command, not Trump, and to the extent that Trump does anything, he does so only with Twitter’s permission. Twitter can alter his account — and his account alone — in its sole discretion and according to its corporate whims. ‘Control’ is simply not a word that applies to anyone’s Twitter account. Twitter’s terms of service are so sweeping, that even Trump’s speech isn’t solely Trump’s speech any longer. Twitter can use his words at will.”

Declan McCullagh of Reason notes, “The judge’s logic turns the traditional way of viewing the First Amendment on its head: Your right to free speech doesn’t extend to a right to make someone else, even a politician you have good reason to loathe, listen to you. The Supreme Court expanded on this in a 1984 case, ruling that a ‘person’s right to speak is not infringed when government simply ignores that person while listening to others.’” The First Amendment prevents the government from silencing the speech of individuals. It does not obligate Trump to listen to anyone.

Finally, Trump’s blocking certain Twitter followers from his personal account — an account he set up eight years before becoming president — does not preclude those individuals from following his feed outside of their personal accounts. It simply makes it more inconvenient for them and prevents them from posting their comments to his account.

Trump has yet to tweet a response, but we’re betting it’ll be entertaining.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.