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The News Reports about the Department of Commerce dropping its quest to put the Citizenship Question on the Census is incorrect or, to state it differently, FAKE! We are absolutely moving forward, as we must, because of the importance of the answer to this question. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2019

His posts routinely generate tens of thousands of replies, as people respond to what he has said and engage in debates with each other.

Against that backdrop, a group of Twitter users whom Trump had blocked from accessing his postings asked the White House to be unblocked and then, when their request went unheeded, sued him.

The plaintiffs included Rebecca Buckwalter, a fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress. Her account was blocked after she responded to a tweet by Trump on June 6, 2017, in which he accused various mainstream news outlets of being “fake news” media and said he would not have won the White House if he relied on them.

Buckwalter replied, “To be fair you didn’t win the WH: Russia won it for you” — and she was blocked by Trump’s account.

He may not selectively exclude those whose views he disagrees with

The lawsuit argued that Trump’s account amounted to a public forum — a “digital town hall” — so his decision to selectively block people from participating in that forum because he did not like what they said amounted to unconstitutional discrimination based on their viewpoints.

Trump’s legal team argued, among other things, that he operated the account merely in a personal capacity and so had the right to block whomever he wanted for any reason — including because users annoyed him by criticizing or mocking him.

But the appeals court disagreed, saying he was clearly acting in a government capacity in his use of Twitter.

Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP/Getty

“We are not persuaded,” Parker wrote. “We conclude that the evidence of the official nature of the account is overwhelming. We also conclude that once the president has chosen a platform and opened up its interactive space to millions of users and participants, he may not selectively exclude those whose views he disagrees with.”