A FEDERAL judge in New York has ruled that US President Donald Trump may not legally block Twitter users because doing so violates their right to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution.

The ruling by US District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan came in response to a lawsuit filed against Mr Trump in July by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and several Twitter users.

Judge Buchwald agreed with the plaintiffs’ contention that the discussions arising from Mr Trump’s tweets should be considered a public forum. She rejected an argument made by Justice Department lawyers that Trump’s own First Amendment rights allowed him to block people with whom he did not wish to interact. Trump was a prolific tweeter from his @RealDonaldTrump account even before being elected in 2016 and has since made it an integral and controversial part of his presidency.

Aides reportedly have tried to rein in his tweeting, which often starts early in the morning. But he has remained unfettered and uses Twitter to promote his agenda, announce policy and attack critics, especially the media, and the investigation into possible Russian connections with his campaign.

A spokesman for the US Department of Justice, which represents the president in the case, had no immediate comment. Twitter also did not immediately comment.

The Knight Institute and the individual Twitter users claimed in their lawsuit that by blocking users for their views, Mr Trump was shutting them out of discussion in a public forum, violating the First Amendment.

When one Twitter user blocks another, the blocked user may not respond to the blocker’s tweets on the social media platform.

Media reports say among those Mr Trump has blocked are novelists Stephen King and Anne Rice, comedian Rosie O’Donnell, model Chrissy Teigen, actress Marina Sirtis and the military veterans political action committee VoteVets.org. In addition to Trump, the lawsuit named his social media director, Dan Scavino, as a defendant.

“While we must recognise, and are sensitive to, the president’s personal First Amendment rights, he cannot exercise those rights in a way that infringes the corresponding First Amendment rights of those who have criticised him,” Judge Buchwald said overnight.

She stopped short of directly ordering Trump to unblock users, saying it was not necessary to enter a “legal thicket” involving courts’ power over the president. “Because no government official is above the law and because all government officials are presumed to follow the law once the judiciary has said what the law is, we must assume that the President and Scavino will remedy the blocking we have held to be unconstitutional,” she wrote.

TRUMP SLAMS ‘SPYGATE’
It comes as Mr Trump escalated his efforts to discredit the Russia investigation overnight, saying the FBI has been caught in a “MAJOR spy scandal” over their use of a secret informant to determine whether some of Trump’s campaign aides were working with Russia ahead of the 2016 election.

“SPYGATE could be one of the biggest political scandals in history!” Mr Trump said in a Twitter tirade.

Mr Trump and his Republican supporters in Congress are now demanding information on the outside informant, claiming it is proof that the Obama administration was trying to spy on his campaign for political reasons.

The White House has negotiated rare access to classified documents for Mr Trump’s congressional allies in a briefing expected on Thursday.

“Look how things have turned around on the Criminal Deep State,” Mr Trump tweeted.

“They go after Phony Collusion with Russia, a made up Scam, and end up getting caught in a major SPY scandal the likes of which this country may never have seen before! What goes around, comes around!”

The president’s comments came a day after he increased pressure on the Justice Department, declining to say whether he has confidence in Deputy Attorney-General Rod Rosenstein.

Over the weekend, Mr Trump demanded that the Justice Department investigate the FBI and Justice Department’s handling of the Russia probe.

The Justice Department agreed by expanding an open, internal investigation to determine whether there was any politically motivated surveillance.

And the White House said that Mr Trump chief of staff John Kelly would organise the meeting with House politicians to review the documents, although he and other White House staffers would not be present.

FBI Director Christopher Wray, National Intelligence Director Dan Coats and Justice Department official Edward O’Callaghan will meet with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes and House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Trey Gowdy.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said no Democrats were invited because they had not requested the information, despite calls from politicians for the briefing to be bipartisan.

I agreed with his point of view.