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The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to review a decision from last year in which the Second Circuit Court of Appeals said it is a violation of the First Amendment for the president to block someone from his personal Twitter account based on what they say.
While blocked users still have the ability to see a person's tweets if they are not logged in, they are unable to view replies or take part in the conversation that goes on in reply threads, which the court said was a public forum given Trump's use of Twitter to discuss political issues.
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"The result of the court of appeals’ novel ruling will be to jeopardize the ability of public officials – from the president of the United States to a village councilperson – to insulate their social-media accounts from harassment, trolling or hate speech without invasive judicial oversight," the administration's petition said. "As applied to the president in particular, this [Supreme] Court – not a lower federal court – should decide where to draw the line between the president’s personal decisions and official conduct."
A group of Twitter users filed their lawsuit after Trump blocked them, and they won at the district and circuit court levels.
The administration argued that "a federal official performs government action subject to constitutional scrutiny only when he exercises 'power "possessed by virtue of [federal] law."'" The petition noted that Trump's ability to block users come from being a Twitter user, not from being the president.
There is no indication when the Supreme Court will determine whether to hear the case, but if they do it is likely that oral arguments would not take place until next year.
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After the Second Circuit's ruling, former Democratic New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind sued Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, claiming that she blocked him illegally. Ocasio-Cortez initially pushed back against the lawsuit, but the parties ended up settling out of court the day before she was scheduled to testify.
As per the settlement agreement, the congresswoman apologized to Hikind and unblocked him.
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