On Friday the 13th, The White House filed its opening brief in a lawsuit by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University challenging President Trump’s practice of blocking Twitter users who have criticized him or his policies.
Regarding the White House’s claim of presidential immunity, Jameel Jaffer, Knight Institute Executive Director, said:
“The White House’s claim that the court lacks authority to enjoin the president is wrong, and if it were accepted its implications would be far-reaching and intolerable. The president isn’t above the law. The government’s claim to the contrary is based on an overbroad reading of cases that involved very different factual contexts as well as executive interests far more weighty than the ones at issue here.”
For those unaware, a president blocking users on social media violates the First Amendment, as Trump’s use of the service constitutes a “state action.” Blocking users on Twitter violates American’s First Amendment rights solely because it inhibits their ability to speak freely (to the president) in a public forum. However, the White House is indicating that the president’s Twitter account is a private, not public, platform.
Not only did they try to argue that Trump’s published remarks on Twitter is not a “state action,” but that individual citizens don’t have standing to sue the president because “it would flout the separation of powers for the Court to issue an order limiting the President’s discretion in managing his Twitter account.”
As expected, members of the Knight Institute called them out on their lies:
“The White House’s claim that the court lacks authority to enjoin the president is wrong, and if it were accepted its implications would be far-reaching and intolerable. The president isn’t above the law,” Jaffer said in a statement Saturday morning. “The government’s claim to the contrary is based on an overbroad reading of cases that involved very different factual contexts as well as executive interests far more weighty than the ones at issue here.”
You can read the entire briefing, here.
It’s more than obvious that the White House is trying to make an excuse for Trump’s habit of blocking people who he disagrees with like celebrities such as author Stephen King, veterans organizations, and a woman with stage 4 cancer who criticized his health care plan. But there is absolutely no argument to be made here: Trump will never be above the law.
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