Chinanews.com, April 6th. According to a report by the US Chinese website, the US Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit filed against the Twitter account of former President Trump on the 5th local time.
The US Department of Justice had previously requested that the case be dismissed on the grounds that Trump has stepped down, and this case has become a "empty letter."
On January 20, 2021 local time, Washington, USA, Trump boarded the "Marine Corps One" presidential helicopter.
According to reports, this case originated in 2017, when the Knight's First Amendment Institute at Columbia University filed a lawsuit in court on behalf of seven Twitter accounts that were "blocked" by Trump.
The plaintiff believes that, as the president at the time, Trump’s Twitter account was actually a “public forum,” and the practice of shielding critics violated the first amendment to the Constitution on freedom of speech.
The lower court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals successively ruled in favor of the plaintiff.
Allegedly, during Trump's tenure, the U.S. Department of Justice urged the Supreme Court to reverse these rulings.
Government lawyers said that although Trump sometimes uses his Twitter account to make official statements, his decision to block other Twitter users is the right of everyone on Twitter.
On the night before President Biden was sworn in, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the case and revoke the lower court’s ruling on the grounds that the case would be meaningless after Trump’s resignation.
Knight Institute senior lawyer Fallow urged the Supreme Court to uphold the lower court's ruling.
She said: "People now generally recognize that the principles we established in this case are important to protect the vitality of public forums, and public forums are becoming more and more important to our democracy."
She added that the case has reshaped the way government officials use social media.
Conservative Justice Thomas wrote a 12-page opinion on the case. He stated that the case should be dismissed, but it also highlighted a problem, that is, "Involving new digital platforms, old dogma is rarely straightforward." Application."
Thomas also pointed out that when a private company has the "unrestricted power" to cancel an account, it is strange to say that the account is a public forum.
He was referring to the permanent blockade of Trump's account by Twitter after the congressional riots on January 6.
The congressional riots resulted in a total of five deaths, including a policeman. Twitter said at the time that Trump’s account was “in danger of further inciting violence.”