The Court held that the First Amendment prohibits President Trump from blocking people on Twitter based on their viewpoints. That, dear We The People listeners, you remember, because we discussed it a while ago, is a lawsuit filed by Twitter users that were blocked by President Trump. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently decided the case Knight Institute versus Trump. The National Constitution Center is a nonpartisan nonprofit chartered by Congress to increase awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people. Jeffrey Rosen: I'm Jeffrey Rosen, President and CEO of The National Constitution Center, and welcome to We The People, a weekly show of Constitutional debate. This transcript may not be in its final form, accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future. Please subscribe to We the Peopleand our companion podcast, Live at America’s Town Hall, on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app. Questions or comments about the show? Email us at Ĭontinue today’s conversation on Facebook and Twitter using up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly.
Research was provided by Ellinor Rutkey, Michael Boyd, Jackie McDermott, Zoe Dettelbach, Perri Wilson, and Ben Roebuck. This episode was engineered by Greg Scheckler, and produced by Jackie McDermott. Entertainment Merchants Association (2011) Jeffrey Rosen is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Constitution Center, the only institution in America chartered by Congress “to disseminate information about the United States Constitution on a nonpartisan basis.” He is a former major in the Army Reserves who earned a bronze star for his service in Operation Iraqi Freedom. French was previously the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a lecturer at Cornell Law School, and a senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom and the American Center for Law and Justice. She was previously a partner at Jenner & Block, where she litigated First Amendment cases, and was deputy director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission.ĭavid Frenchis senior fellow at the National Review Institute, and senior writer for National Review. Katie Fallowis a senior attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and was one of the lead attorneys representing the blocked Twitter users and the Knight Institute in Knight Institute v. And, they explain how the Second Circuit’s decision may impact government attempts to regulate social media.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by people claiming that she unconstitutionally blocked them on Twitter.
They also explore a similar lawsuit recently filed against Rep. Katie Fallow – one of the lead attorneys who represented the blocked Twitter users in the case – and David French, senior writer at National Review and former First Amendment litigator, debate the merits of the decision as well as its potential impact on future cases. The court held that because President Trump controls access to his Twitter account and uses it for official government purposes, it is a public forum and, under the First Amendment, he cannot block people solely based on their viewpoints. President Trump can no longer block people on Twitter, following a ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.