President Donald Trump’s Twitter antics has backfired. Seven Twitter users appeared in federal court on Tuesday charging Trump with violating their First Amendment rights. The users were blocked by Trump’s Twitter account and, for this, they are asking a judge to deem the action as unconstitutional. The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, comes a month after the group sent a letter to the president and several aides, asking that two of their clients be unblocked. The group said the White House did not respond. “President Trump’s Twitter account has become an important source of news and information about the government and an important forum for speech by, to, or about the president,” Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight Institute, said. “The First Amendment applies to this digital forum in the same way it applies to town halls and open school board meetings. The White House acts unlawfully when it excludes people from this forum simply because they’ve disagreed with the president.” The group sued on behalf of seven Twitter users, including a police officer, sociology professor, surgery resident and songwriter. Two of them first complained about being blocked in early June. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) has been an active Twitter user since 2009. He currently has over 33 million followers and has tweeted over 35,000 times. Read more HERE. Photo credit: AlabamaToday.com
