By Matthew Russell Lee, Post-argument video
COURTHOUSE of 2d Circuit, March 26– When the U.S. Department of Justice sought to call President Donald Trump blocking his critics on Twitter a purely personal act, a three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on March 26 had many questions and analogies. Isn't the Twitter reply space a public forum? Doesn't Trump use his Twitter account to announce North Korea policy, and most recently his nomination the Federal Reserve Board of Stephen Moore? DOJ argued that Trump does his own blocking, and that people are free to reply elsewhere. Judge Christopher Droney brought up a case where even a privately owned venue, when rented by the government, could not block a production of "Hair."
Judge Barrington Parker called the tweets a dialogue of transcendent public importance; he asked if Trump could for example block anti-Semitic tweets. (The plaintiffs' answer, that the only test is whether the blocking is content neutral, did not seem to answer the question.) The case is Knight First Amendment Institute, et al. v. Donald J. Trump, Post-argument Periscope here.
Judge Peter Hall said that DOJ's presence in court to defend the blocking tended to show that it was a governmental action. At the end a safe travel back to Washington was wished. The decision was reserved - but Inner City Press notes that for example the Spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, blocks it on his Twitter feed which makes official UN announcements. But the UN is not covered by the First Amendment, and uses its impunity to the maximum, including to ignore decisions like the March 25 three year sentence in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Patrick Ho for UN bribery. We'll have more on this.
The day before Michael Avenatti was brought into the SDNY court on charges of extorting Nike and defrauding banks, he sat alone at the defense table for twenty minutes. The two Federal Defenders lawyers representing him then came in, and huddled twice with a group of prosecutors. It emerged they hammered out a bail package: $300,000 bond, turning in both American and Italian passports and not contacting Co-Conspirator 1 without counsel present. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Katharine H. Parker accepted the bail package, and told Avenatti if he does not show up a warrant will be issued for his arrest. Later, much later, Avenatti emerged in front of the SDNY court's Worth Street entrance and spoke without taking questions, saying he will continue to fight. On his way to his 4 by 4 Inner City Press asked, What information do you have on Nike? And, to try to get some response, Has your [NCAA March Madness] bracket been broken? There was no answer. Periscope video here.
