The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a suit by Twitter users who argued their First Amendment rights had been violated when Donald Trump as president block them from his account.
The high court made the decision after the Justice Department said the end Trump’s presidency made the case moot, according to NBC News.
The case was brought by seven people who responded critically to tweets on Trump’s @realDonaldTrump account, which Twitter has permanently shuttered. The plaintiffs argued successfully in lower courts, which held that Twitter users’ First Amendment rights had been violated, based on their viewpoints.
The Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit said the president’s account amounted to a kind of public forum and often concerned official matters with contributions from White House staff members.
The Trump Justice Department urged the Supreme Court to reverse those rulings, then dismiss the case. While the president’s tweets were sometimes official statements, his decision to block individual responses was a personal one allowed by any Twitter user, government lawyers contended, NBC also reports.
