New York: A federal judge in New York on Wednesday ruled that President Donald Trump may not legally block Twitter users because doing so violates their rights under the First Amendment of the Constitution.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan came in response to a lawsuit filed against Trump in July by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and several Twitter users.
Trump was a prolific tweeter from his @RealDonaldTrump account before becoming president and since has used it to promote his agenda, announce policy and attack critics and the investigation of possible Russian connections to his presidential campaign.
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, which represents the president in the case, had no immediate comment. Twitter also did not immediately comment.
The plaintiffs have said Trump’s Twitter account creates a public forum and that the president cannot block other users simply because they criticize him in replies to his tweets.
Twitter, a social media platform, lets users post short texts, called tweets, to which other users may respond.