President Donald Trump will fight a court ruling that found his habit of blocking people on Twitter unconstitutional, but in the meantime, Trump's Twitter account has unblocked the seven plaintiffs named in the original lawsuit against him.
"We whined. We complained. We sued. We won our First Amendment lawsuit in federal court," tweeted Philip Cohen, a university professor. "And now @realDonaldTrump has unblocked me. Wow!"
Trump finally obeys court order and unblocks me on @Twitter #BlockedByTrump pic.twitter.com/xdR5Ct2sce — Brandon Neely (@BrandonTXNeely) June 5, 2018
How long the unblocking will last remains to be seen. On Monday, attorneys with the US Justice Department appealed the May ruling. According to the judge, the president's Twitter account is a "public forum" that anyone should be able to view and direct comments to, given that Trump is now an elected official.
Clearly, the White House disagrees. But for now, it has decided to abide to the judge's ruling, which stemmed from a lawsuit filed on behalf of seven plaintiffs who were critical of Trump on Twitter and later blocked.
"Two days shy of the one year anniversary of my blocking, @realDonaldTrump has unblocked me," tweeted Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza, a writer and legal analyst.
The Knight First Amendment Institute, which filed the original lawsuit, said all seven plaintiffs had been unblocked, but noted that other critics of Trump remain banned from viewing the president's account.
So @realDonaldTrump has started to unblock people, per court decision. But not us, or the 550k vets, military families and their patriotic supporters we represent.
Well, sorry, @POTUS, but blocking us won't silence us. pic.twitter.com/8Ubea9vZKU — VoteVets (@votevets) June 5, 2018
"It should go without saying that those individuals have the same rights as our clients. If they have been blocked on the basis of their viewpoints, the White House should unblock them immediately," said Katie Fallow, a senior staff attorney at the institute in a statement.
Why Trump doesn't simply "mute" his critics on Twitter as opposed to blocking them isn't clear. But the legal battle has implications for all public officials on Twitter. If the court denies Trump's appeal, it may mean US elected officials will have to keep their Twitter accounts open to all.