Justice Clarence Thomas agreed with the court’s decision to make the case moot, although he expressed concern that “applying old doctrines to new digital platforms is rarely straightforward”, signaling that this was a problem he believes deserves further consideration. The request also asked Scotus to vacate the rulings of lower courts.įormer president Trump’s account was permanently banned by Twitter following the events of 6 January 2021, when a mob of angry rioters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to block Congress from certifying Biden’s election victory. Government lawyers argued for the reversal by contending that the president’s decision to block responses from individual Twitter accounts was allowed by any Twitter user, and was a personal choice.
The US justice department made a request for the supreme court to dismiss the case as moot on the night before Joe Biden was inaugurated in January. The president’s account amounts to a public forum of sorts, said the second circuit, and because it often concerns official matters of national interest, and publishes contributions from White House staff members, the former president was not allowed to retaliate by blocking the users’ Twitter accounts.