June 05, 2018•Update: June 05, 2018
By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON
The Trump administration confirmed Tuesday it is appealing a court ruling made last month that said the U.S. president cannot block Twitter users from accessing his feed based on their political views.
The Justice Department confirmed the move in an email to Anadolu Agency, but declined to comment further.
Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald said in her ruling Trump cannot block Twitter users who criticize him because doing so is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees free speech.
"No government official -- including the president -- is above the law," Buchwald wrote. "While we must recognize, and are sensitive to, the president’s personal First Amendment rights, he cannot exercise those rights in a way that infringes the corresponding First Amendment rights of those who have criticized him."
The case was originally brought by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and seven Twitter users who had been blocked by Trump.
The seven Twitter users that were the foundation for the suit have been unblocked by Trump following the court ruling, the institute said Monday.
But scores of other accounts not originally part of the lawsuit continue to be blocked, including VoteVets, a progressive group of military veterans and their families which said on Twitter "blocking us won't silence us".
