Trump is finally starting to comply with a court order to unblock people on Twitter
Three months after a federal judge ruled that President Trump's Twitter should be considered a public forum, Trump has finally begun unblocking his online foes.
On Tuesday, Trump unblocked 20 accounts, after the Justice Department was urged to make sure the president complied with the court order, Reuters reported Wednesday.
In May, U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan ruled that Trump was violating individuals' rights to free speech when he blocked them on Twitter, seeing as he uses the platform to announce official government business and the comments serve as a public forum. The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which led the charge to keep @realDonaldTrump open to all, told the Justice Department earlier this month that despite the ruling, Trump still had at least 41 users blocked.
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Those 41 users, including a film producer, photographer, screenwriter, and author who has criticized Trump, had been barred from the simple pleasure of waking up to tweets like "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN" and "NO COLLUSION — RIGGED WITCH HUNT," which we are all constitutionally entitled to read. Trump still has to unblock a handful of users, including actress Rosie O'Donnell, a longtime enemy. O'Donnell still can't see Trump's tweets calling her a "total loser" — "still blocked," she tweeted.
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Summer Meza has worked at The Week since 2018, serving as a staff writer, a news writer and currently the deputy editor. As a proud news generalist, she edits everything from political punditry and science news to personal finance advice and film reviews. Summer has previously written for Newsweek and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, covering national politics, transportation and the cannabis industry.
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