Speaker 1: Well, that was time for our daily Bloomberg Law Brief,
Speaker 1: exploring legal issues in the news, and today, Bloomberg Law
Speaker 1: host Jim Grosso and Greg Store discuss a lawsuit challenging
Speaker 1: President Trump's ability to block users on Twitter. They speak
Speaker 1: with said Krishna Prakash, a professor at the University of
Speaker 1: Virginia Law School, and Stephen Vladeck, a professor at the
Speaker 1: University of Texas Law School. Steve, the group of seven
Speaker 1: Twitter users range from a former police officer to a writer,
Speaker 1: tell us the argument that the First Amendment group is
Speaker 1: making on their behalf. Sure, I mean, I think the
Speaker 1: basic gist of their claim June is that the President's
Speaker 1: Twitter account is part of his job responsibilities. It's a
Speaker 1: public forum. It's a place where he hands down official
Speaker 1: statement at a place where he disseminates news. Um and
Speaker 1: by preventing individual users from access in that forum for
Speaker 1: what are at least from the allegations, content based reasons
Speaker 1: the press and is discriminated on the basis of the
Speaker 1: content of his user's speech against him, um and that
Speaker 1: he's blocked to them basically because they have a viewpoint
Speaker 1: with which he disagrees. You know, in a normal context,
Speaker 1: if a government official we're shutting out particular speakers based
Speaker 1: on their viewpoint, that would receive the highest scrutiny under
Speaker 1: the First Amendment and would typically be struck down by
Speaker 1: the courts. And so I we're still at a pretty
Speaker 1: early stage in this litigation, but give us an overview
Speaker 1: of what it looks like the Justice Department's defense of
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is going to be here. Well, the Justice
Speaker 1: Development filed the letter with the court and basically made
Speaker 1: to two different claims. One was that, UM, this you know,
Speaker 1: the website, UM is not a public forum. The president
Speaker 1: had this Twitter account before he was president, UM, I
Speaker 1: presumably will have it after he's president, and he's using
Speaker 1: it to communicate with people, but it's not UM. It's
Speaker 1: not on a official website, our official Twitter handle for
Speaker 1: the government. There's a separate White House Twitter feed for that.
Speaker 1: And then they're separately saying and Stephens very familiar with us.
Speaker 1: They're separately saying that you can't enjoy the president. Under
Speaker 1: some Supreme Court cases going back to right after the
Speaker 1: Civil War, you can't enjoin the president in his official duties.
Speaker 1: And so they're saying, want it's not a public form
Speaker 1: contrary to what the plaintiffs are saying, and too, even
Speaker 1: if it is, you can't tell the President to stop
Speaker 1: blocking these people from his Twitter account. Yes I Krishna
Speaker 1: practas a professor at the University of Virginia Law School,
Speaker 1: and Stephen Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas
Speaker 1: Law School, speaking with Bloomberg Law host Jun Grosso. You
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