<!-- mobian-agent-page publisher="time" canonical="https://time.com/4853515/donald-trump-twitter-blockers-lawsuit/" -->

---
description: President Donald Trump has blocked users on Twitter from seeing his feed. Now, they are retaliating by suing him in court
title: Donald Trump Blocked These People on Twitter. Now They&#x27;re Suing Him
image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf062c2e2faf0cda2/6988d4a0656a3f36a8bd0b64/170706_donald-trump-airplane.jpg?branch=production&amp;width=3840&amp;quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;crop=16:9
---

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf062c2e2faf0cda2/6988d4a0656a3f36a8bd0b64/170706_donald-trump-airplane.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)

* [Politics](/section/politics/)  
## Politics  

Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/)  
Close
* [Courts](/tag/courts/)  
## Courts  

Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/)  
Close

# Donald Trump Blocked These People on Twitter. Now They're Suing Him


![Alana Abramson](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt841db4fb6fb33ac8/698a1380656a3f7bb2bda9e7/alana-abramson-2020-headshot.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1:1)

by 

[Alana Abramson](/author/alana-abramson/)


![Alana Abramson](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt841db4fb6fb33ac8/698a1380656a3f7bb2bda9e7/alana-abramson-2020-headshot.jpg?branch=production&width=96&quality=75&auto=webp)

## Alana Abramson


Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/)

Close

Jul 11, 2017 6:41 PM CUT

![US-POLITICS-TRUMP](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf062c2e2faf0cda2/6988d4a0656a3f36a8bd0b64/170706_donald-trump-airplane.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=3:2)

US President Donald Trump steps off Air Force One upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on July 3, 2017.

US President Donald Trump steps off Air Force One upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on July 3, 2017.Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images

![Alana Abramson](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt841db4fb6fb33ac8/698a1380656a3f7bb2bda9e7/alana-abramson-2020-headshot.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1:1)

by 

[Alana Abramson](/author/alana-abramson/)


![Alana Abramson](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt841db4fb6fb33ac8/698a1380656a3f7bb2bda9e7/alana-abramson-2020-headshot.jpg?branch=production&width=96&quality=75&auto=webp)

## Alana Abramson


Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/)

Close

Jul 11, 2017 6:41 PM CUT

[President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4853057/donald-trump-jr-twitter-emails/ "undefined") has blocked users on Twitter from seeing his feed, oftentimes because they disagreed with him. Now, those users are suing him.

In a [lawsuit filed Tuesday](https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3892179/2017-07-11-Knight-Institute-Trump-Twitter.pdf "undefined") in the Southern District Court of New York, the Knight First Amendment Institute, along with seven additional plaintiffs who claim they have been blocked from seeing the feed because they have expressed comments opposing the President, filed a case against Trump. White House Secretary Sean Spicer, and[ Dan Scavino](http://time.com/donald-trump-after-hours/ "undefined"), the White House Director of Social Media, were also named as defendants.

The suit claims that blocking Twitter users from a President’s twitter feed is unconstitutional because it is withholding access to important news about the U.S. government, and demands that the plaintiffs’ access be restored to the feed.

The Twitter account of the Knight First Amendment Institute has not been blocked, according to the lawsuit, but representatives from the organization are arguing their First Amendment rights are restricted as well because they can’t see or read what the plaintiffs would have said if they hadn’t been blocked.

“Because of the way the President and his aides use the @realDonaldTrump Twitter account, the account is a public forum under the First Amendment,” the lawsuit argues, explaining that the plaintiffs who cannot view the feed are having their first amendment rights violated.

“It imposes an unconstitutional restriction on their participation in a designated public forum. It imposes an unconstitutional restriction on their right to access statements that Defendants are otherwise making available to the public at large,” the lawsuit states.

Spicer has previously said that [tweets from Trump’s Twitter feed can be deemed official statements](http://time.com/4808270/sean-spicer-donald-trump-twitter-statements/ "undefined") from the White House. The White House did not immediately respond to request for comment.

```json
[{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4853515/donald-trump-twitter-blockers-lawsuit/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4853515/donald-trump-twitter-blockers-lawsuit/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Blocked These People on Twitter. Now They're Suing Him","datePublished":"2017-07-11T18:41:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:30:45.245Z","description":"\"This practice is unconstitutional and this suit seeks to send it\"","url":"https://time.com/4853515/donald-trump-twitter-blockers-lawsuit/","keywords":["Courts","White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf062c2e2faf0cda2/6988d4a0656a3f36a8bd0b64/170706_donald-trump-airplane.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf062c2e2faf0cda2/6988d4a0656a3f36a8bd0b64/170706_donald-trump-airplane.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"170706_Donald Trump airplane","caption":"US-POLITICS-TRUMP","creditText":"Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/courts/","name":"Courts"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4853515/donald-trump-twitter-blockers-lawsuit/","name":"Donald Trump Blocked These People on Twitter. Now They're Suing Him"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Trump Just Tweeted a Video of Him Punching CNN in the Face","description":"President Donald Trump posted a video to Twitter on Sunday that depicts him punching a physical representation of CNN in the face, the latest escalation in his ongoing war against the news media and one that raised the specter of actual violence","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/oFj4GzcW/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-07-02T16:04:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/oFj4GzcW.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4853515/donald-trump-twitter-blockers-lawsuit/","duration":"PT43S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4853515/donald-trump-twitter-blockers-lawsuit/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}]
```
