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At
a hearing in Manhattan federal court, U.S. District Judge Naomi
Reice Buchwald asked Michael Baer, a lawyer with the U.S.
Department of Justice arguing for Trump, whether letting the
president bar users from @realDonaldTrump would violate their
First Amendment free speech rights.
She asked whether Twitter was different from a public town hall,
where government officials would be unable to pull the plug from
a microphone to mute speakers with unwelcome views.
"Once it is a public forum, you can't shut somebody up because
you don't like what they're saying," Buchwald said.
Baer said the appropriate analogy was not a town hall, but
rather Trump choosing to walk away from someone at a public
event.
"The president has an associational interest in deciding who
he's going to spend his time with in that setting," he said.
Near the close of the hearing, Buchwald suggested the lawsuit
could be easily resolved if Trump agreed to mute, rather than
block, Twitter users whose tweets he did not want to read. Both
sides' lawyers said they were receptive to the idea.
If Trump muted a user, he would not see that user's tweets, but
the user could still see and respond to the president's tweets.
The lawsuit was filed against Trump in July by the Knight First
Amendment Institute at Columbia University and several Twitter
users. Buchwald is considering motions from both sides seeking
judgment in their favor.
The plaintiffs have said Trump's account is a public forum, and
that the president cannot block Twitter users simply because
they criticize him in replies to his tweets.
Trump's Twitter use draws intense interest for his unvarnished
commentary, including attacks on critics. His tweets often shape
news.
Katherine Fallow, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told Buchwald the
record "shows unambiguously that the president operates his
account in an official capacity."
Baer acknowledged that Trump sometimes uses his Twitter account
to announce policy, but said that blocking users was not an
official action.
Baer also argued that the court cannot order the president to
unblock users, because of his position as head of another branch
of government.
Twitter lets users post short texts, called tweets, to which
other users may respond.
(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Susan
Thomas and Tom Brown)
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