May Government Officials Block Social Media Users Without Violating The First Amendment?
By David A. Linehan A recent decision from a federal appeals court addresses a thorny question of First Amendment law: May the President of the United States block Twitter users who tweet critical or insulting messages to him? Or does the act of blocking constitute unlawful viewpoint discrimination in a public forum? In Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that President Trump violated