President’s Twitter Now Immune From Being Banned?

Yesterday, my good friend and fellow RedStater, Sister Toldjah, penned a very nice article, with just a touch of schadenfreude. It seems as though in losing a court battle regarding his Twitter account, President Trump may have just won the war. Here’s the immediate fallout: From the article.

After a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday on First Amendment grounds that President Trump could not block Twitter users, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) found herself on the receiving end of a couple of lawsuits on the same grounds. One is from a New York Democrat.

It’s nice to enjoy it when leftists are hoisted on their own petards. It’s even better when their tactical “victory” could possibly turn out to be a strategic route to the benefit of conservatives. Over at American Thinker, Dr. Thomas Lifson explains.

The latest in a long series of rulings by federal judges hamstringing moves by the Trump administration already is teaching a tough but obvious lesson to judges.  A precedent applies to everyone, not just to the specific defendant in the matter at hand.

Lifson goes on the explain that the most recent ruling by a Federal Appeals Court has essentially declared the President’s Twitter account to be a “public forum.” Further, because POTUS uses his Twitter account to communicate with the people regarding public policy, coupled with the fact that his account is open to that same public to comment, his account (emphasis mine) “warrants constitutional free speech protection under the First Amendment.”

Constitutional Free Speech Protection. It gets better.

Well, that makes Twitter, when used by a federal official, covered by First Amendment protections.  So much for the discussion that Twitter might suspend or close President Trump’s account, as it has done to many other conservatives’ accounts. Even better, it also enshrines the right of conservatives to respond to tweets by leftist elected officials.

Dr. Lifson notes, as did Sister Toldjah, within hours of the ruling, Representative Ocasio-Cortez was sued for blocking users on her Twitter account who disagreed with her. Permit me a small chuckle as I enjoy that comeuppance.

In closing, Lifson floats the possibility of a strategic win for conservative against the leviathans, Twitter and Facebook.

If responding to federal officials on Twitter is protected by the First Amendment, then why not make Twitter itself respect the First Amendment rights of conservatives who respond to elected federal officials?

“Twitter itself,” along with Facebook and every other public platform that has been shadow banning or using other nefarious methods to keep the conservative message from getting out, now stands the very real possibility of legal sanctions. Lawfare can be fun.

Mike Ford, a retired Infantry Officer, writes on Military, Foreign Affairs and occasionally dabbles in Political and Economic matters.

Follow him on Twitter: @MikeFor10394583

You can find his other Red State work here.