Ruling that Trump Can’t Block Twitter Users Could Have Implications for Maine Lawsuit

Portland – A court ruled today that President Trump can’t block users from his Twitter feed, in a case that could have implications for an ACLU of Maine lawsuit against Gov. LePage.

A federal judge in New York ruled today that President Trump is violating the Constitution by blocking some Americans from viewing and commenting on his tweets. In a similar case, the ACLU of Maine filed a lawsuit in August on behalf of two Maine women who had their comments deleted and were blocked from further commenting on Gov. LePage’s official Facebook page.

In the case against Gov. LePage, the ACLU of Maine argued that the governor uses the page in his official capacity to perform government business, and blocking people from the page who disagree with the governor constitutes viewpoint discrimination and government censorship in violation of the U.S. and Maine constitutions.

In today’s ruling in the case against President Trump, the court held that blocking the plaintiffs because of the views expressed constituted impermissible viewpoint discrimination. According to the ruling, “The viewpoint-based exclusion of the individual plaintiffs from the designated public forum is proscribed by the First Amendment and cannot be justified by the President’s personal First Amendment interests.”

The ACLU of Maine filed today’s ruling in Knight First Amendment Inst. At Columbia University, et al. v. Donald J. Trump, et al. as supplemental authority in their case.

More about the ACLU’s case, Leuthy et al. v. LePage, is here: https://www.aclumaine.org/en/cases/leuthy-et-al-v-lepage