![]() ![]() Trump had been sued as the president, rather than in his personal capacity, the administration explained, but Biden would not have any control over Trump’s Twitter account. In a brief filed in January, the Trump administration told the justices that, although the 2nd Circuit’s decision was worthy of their review, the case would become moot once Joe Biden succeeded Trump as president on Jan. The evidence in the case shows, they wrote, that the president’s personal Twitter account “functions as an official source of news and information about the government, and as a forum for speech by, to, and about the President.” Moreover, they added, the 2nd Circuit’s ruling does not conflict with the decision of any other court of appeals – an important factor for the justices in determining whether to take up a case. The plaintiffs urged the justices to stay out of the dispute, telling them that the lower court had “correctly applied well-settled precedent” in concluding that Trump’s actions in blocking them from his Twitter account violated the First Amendment. The lower court’s ruling, he wrote, would limit the ability of public officials to “insulate their social-media accounts from harassment, trolling, or hate speech without invasive judicial oversight.” Particularly when it comes to the president, Wall concluded, the Supreme Court should have the final word on “where to draw the line between the President’s personal decisions and official conduct.” Wall contended that the 2nd Circuit’s decision disregarded “the critical distinction between the President’s (sometimes) official statements on Twitter and his always personal decision to block” the plaintiffs from seeing and responding to his tweets. Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall, the federal government’s top lawyer in the Supreme Court during the end of the Trump administration, Trump asked the justices to weigh in last summer. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit upheld that ruling. The plaintiffs alleged that blocking them on Twitter violated the First Amendment, and the district court agreed. The lawsuit was filed in July 2017 by the Knight First Amendment Institute and seven individuals whom Trump had blocked on Twitter after they criticized the president or his policies. ![]() Just under three months after former President Donald Trump was permanently banned from Twitter, the Supreme Court put an end to a legal battle over Trump’s personal Twitter account, throwing out a lower-court ruling against the former president and instructing that court to dismiss the case on the ground that it is moot – that is, no longer a live controversy. ![]()
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