The Story:
The US District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that it is unconstitutional for President Trump to block people from following his twitter account. The judge rejected the suggestion that the President’s twitter account can be considered a “personal” matter aside from his official duties.
The Judge:
The decision, issued on May 23, more than ten months after the lawsuit was filed, is the work of the Hon. Naomi Reice Buchwald.
Buchwald was appointed to the bench by President Clinton in 1999. Is she a “knee-jerk liberal” in her decisions? One might fairly answer that question “no.”
Buchwald has presided over other high profile cases, among them a lawsuit against agricultural giant Monsanto over genetically modified seeds. In that case, Buchwald’s opinion was hailed as a victory on the political right: she found that the plaintiffs, organic food growers who complained that Monsanto’s growing market strength was a threat to their industry, had no cognizable grievance. She called the lawsuit was a “transparent effort to create a controversy where none exists.”
The Thing to Know:
Judge Buchwald’s opinion on the twitter-block case seems to apply to all federal officials who maintain twitter accounts, so it will have consequences far beyond the Oval Office.
