On July 9, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second
Circuit issued Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia
University v. Donald J. Trump1 and affirmed the district
court's ruling that President Donald Trump violated the First
Amendment when he blocked users from his Twitter account.
Specifically, the court held that Trump engaged in unlawful
viewpoint discrimination when he blocked users who criticized him
or his policies on his @realDonaldTrump Twitter account from
further viewing and interacting with the tweets on his page.
In 2009, before his presidency, Trump registered the
@realDonaldTrump account as a personal account and used it to
comment on pop culture, politics and other topics. Since his
inauguration in January 2017, Trump has used the account almost
exclusively to communicate and interact with the public on issues
relating to his administration and to conduct official government
affairs. The president has explained that he uses the account
