Trump addresses the media at the White House today. (Getty pix)
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The First Amendment prohibits the federal government abridging one’s free speech, but it does not, as a federal judge has ruled, require anyone to provide the soapbox for that speech.
U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of New York ruled today President Donald Trump may not block Twitter users who criticize him because that violates their right to free speech.
“While we must recognize, and are sensitive to, the president’s personal First Amendment rights, he cannot exercise those rights in a way that infringes the corresponding First Amendment rights of those who have criticized him,” the judge said.
Any Twitter user can block people from accessing their online posts. The president should be treated no different. He certainly may not block people from commenting on their own social media apps, but he is hardly obligated to accommodate anyone who wants to glom onto his Twitter account.
Just because he is president does not change things.
As Ronald Reagan once said: “I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Green!”
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