Select target paragraph3

● ● ●

Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump (Rehearing)

Case Law

Country

Country Location

Latitude: 39.778231903243785

Longitude: -100.8801256788983

Case Outcome (Procedural)

Case Outcome (Disposition)

Keywords

Case Summary: The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied rehearing a 2019 ruling of the Appellate Court in which confirmed that President Trump’s practice of blocking critics from his Twitter account violated the First Amendment. The Plaintiffs had sued President Donald Trump for blocking individual Plaintiffs from accessing @realDonaldTrump account on the ground of an unconstitutional restriction on their right to access statements reflective of Trump’s views and decisions in his official capacity as President. The Court found that the use of the account by Trump and his communications staff and its interactive features to function as an ‘official vehicle of governance’. Noting that the case was a ‘straightforward application of state action and public forum doctrines, congruent with Supreme Court precedent’, the Court concluded that the use of twitter account by the President amounted to ‘state action’ and the selective exclusion of critics on account of their displeasing comments (viewpoint discrimination) was an ‘egregious form of content discrimination’.

Case Significance: The decision establishes a binding or persuasive precedent within its jurisdiction.

Collection