A judgment has been handed down by a federal court in Virginia ruling that politicians can’t block people on social media. The ruling might have an impact on a lawsuit pending against President Donald Trump for blocking people on Twitter. The ruling concerned the chairwoman of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors who blocked a constituent on Facebook.
The U.S. District Judge James Cacheris ruled that Phyllis Randall, chairwoman of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, had violated the right to free speech of a constituent that she blocked on Facebook.
The constituent in question, Brian Davison, says that he was blocked on Facebook by Randall after he accused the Loudoun School Board of corruption in his reply to the chairwoman’s post on her Facebook page in which she invited feedback from the citizens.
Judge Cacheris explained in the ruling that since Randall is acting as a public official on her Facebook page, she couldn’t block the constituent without violating the First Amendment as the act of blocking the constituent lead to “suppressing critical commentary regarding elected officials.” The judge further added that Randall’s actions were a form of viewpoint discrimination.
The judge didn’t consider the argument put forward by the chairwoman’s lawyer that since she doesn’t use county resources to manage her Facebook page, it doesn’t represent the government.
“We hope the courts look to this opinion as a road map in holding that it is unconstitutional for President Trump to block his critics on Twitter,” said the senior staff attorney of Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute that has filed a lawsuit against President Trump for blocking people on Twitter.
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