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You can go into obnoxious mode and start bashing these people, but it is actually a very interesting constitutional and legal issue (if you are into the logic and theory of law).
Trump has chosen to make Twitter his public forum and mode of communication, so he has indeed brought up issues of free speech and the constitutional rights of other Twitter users. If Trump wants to use alternative methods of communication, he will have to deal with the implications of blocking the free speech of people on said public forums.
These types of lawsuits are quite interesting in regard to legal precedents.
Absolutely right on all counts. This will be a big constitutional issue and is not comparable to any other tweeter. Trump is the president of all the people. He is disseminating policy in the form of tweets. To deny access to all who do not agree with his policy is going to be a clear constitutional issue of first amendment rights and other constitutional issues concerning the freedom of information act.
What if the government refused to start releasing freedom of information requests only to people who disagree with their policies? Then orgs like Judicial Watch, who have made a business out of demanding freedom of information material to go after leading democrats would be out of business.
There's a lot more to this than meets the eye, constitutionally speaking.
The best is when he sued author Timothy O'Brien for writing in his book that Trump was not a billionaire. The case was tossed in large part due to Trump's own testimony that he could not prove he was a billionaire, that he was only worth about $150 million to $250 million:
Trump was even more unreliable in his testimony about his net worth:
Q: Now Mr. Trump, have you always been completely truthful in your public statements about your net worth of properties?
A: I try.
Q: Have you ever been not truthful?
A: My net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down with markets and with attitudes and feelings, even my own feelings but I try.
Q: Let me just understand that a little bit. Let's talk about that for a second. You said that the net worth goes up and down based on your own feelings?
A: Yes ...
Trump could not even produce a bank statement proving he was worth over $1 billion. This is all he had to do. Truth is an absolute winner in libel cases. And he could not even prove he had $1 billion or assets worth that much.
This one is part of the reason why Trump hates the media, the NY Times v Sullivan Supreme Court ruling covering public figures outlining libel and actual malice.
Here is the whole list of Trump's legal activities:
Look, Trump has every right to block whom he wants from his Twitter account. Give me a break.
So Trump tweets a bunch of BS and gets to hide behind it? That's fine.... all of Trump's tweets are out there and will continue to be used against (travel ban, but it's not ban... but I'm going to call it a ban). Not to mention the funny TrumpAgainstTrump movement using Trump's tweets against him. Sad!
Look, Trump has every right to block whom he wants from his Twitter account. Give me a break.
Not really, since the White House said Twitter was being used as official communication tool.
Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Monday that Twitter is President Trump's way to circumvent media bias and speak directly to Americans.
"I think social media for the president is extremely important," Sanders said. "It gives him the ability to speak directly to the people without the bias of the media filtering communication. He has over 100 plus million contacts through social media and all those platforms. I think it's a very important tool for him to utilize."
Trump can't deny people access to official government information because he doesn't like that they don't agree with him. Another self inflicted wound by Trump.
Look, Trump has every right to block whom he wants from his Twitter account. Give me a break.
Not so fast. At the state and local levels, courts have ruled that politicians' social accounts become public records once they use those pages to discuss official business or matters of public concern. (see http://www.newseuminstitute.org/firs...-social-media/ )
There's no reason to think this is not also true at the federal level.
Good description of WH employees who melt over harsh replies to POTUS tweets. But that doesn't give said staff the right to arbitrarily block taxpayers from reading public WH communications.
Look, Trump has every right to block whom he wants from his Twitter account. Give me a break.
You and I certainly do have that right.
But, to cite a recent example, when is an email from a SoS not a public record? The answer is that an email about a strictly personal matter - say a yoga class - is generally not considered a public record, but you must agree, that line can be fuzzy at times. Why would/should a tweet be treated differently from an email? Especially a tweet about public policy?
I definitely see some legal opinionizing on this in our collective future.
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