Many anti-Trump Twitter users have proudly displayed in their bios how they were #BlockedByTrump, but things are about to change following a July 9 unanimous ruling from a three-judge panel within the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York.
Trump may not be the only politician who has to reverse his blocks. Tuesday afternoon, Former New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind announced on Twitter that he would open up a similar lawsuit against Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), because “no one is above the law.”
“Debate, as uncomfortable and as unpleasant as it frequently may be, is nonetheless a good thing,” Judge Barrington D. Parker wrote. “In resolving this appeal, we remind the litigants and the public that if the First Amendment means anything, it means that the best response to disfavored speech on matters of public concern is more speech, not less.”
The Tuesday ruling comes a year after US District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald made a similar assertion, but did not order the US president to unblock individuals because she did not want to get into the “legal thicket” of using the court’s powers to command the president.