Former President Donald Trump was deplatformed on social media after inciting the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection. He isn’t taking that very well even though he has continued to spread his dangerous big lie of widespread voter fraud that doesn’t exist on Twitter through his spokesperson Liz Harrington. Reuters legal correspondent Brad Heath tweeted out the twice-impeached one-term president’s legal arguments against the behemoth social media platform.
Heath said, ‘Trump’s lawyers told a federal court tonight that Twitter’s forum-selection agreement — which requires that he sue the company in California (not Florida, where he sued) — does not apply to him “as the 45th President of the United States.”‘
“Trump’s argument seems to be that his Twitter account was actually operated on behalf of the government, inasmuch as he made announcements about policy,” he explained. “And Twitter’s TOS don’t apply to government entities that cannot accept venue limitations.”
Trump’s argument is full of holes.
“But if the court accepts the argument that Trump’s Twitter account became a thing operated by and for the U.S. government, that would seem to open up the big question of why Trump, a private citizen, would have standing to sue over it,” he said. “The argument also doesn’t address why the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit, who weren’t president, should escape the terms of service because Trump was.”
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Trump suggested that Twitter is addicting.
“Trump also argues that Twitter’s terms of service shouldn’t be binding because the product is addictive, leaving addicts little choice but to agree,” Heath wrote. “(The lawsuit is seeking to force Twitter to let him back on to the addictive website).”
University of Texas Law Professor Steve Vladeck doesn’t think Trump’s case will get anywhere.
It would be crazy enough to argue that a sitting President is somehow exempt from ordinary contract law principles simply because he’s the President.
But here, Trump agreed to Twitter’s terms *before* he was President, and is challenging them *after.*
So … good luck with that. https://t.co/Ddt3nEjdb1
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) September 23, 2021
It is kind of creepy.
The creepies part of this is that it reads present tense, as though he’s asserting that he’s (still) the 45th President https://t.co/Cd0sTCMpQz
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) September 23, 2021
Trump has gotten so used to ignoring the law that he thinks it doesn’t apply to him anymore.
Any lawyer signing their name to a pleading making that assertion should be embarrassed. https://t.co/mFDrb0mMKg
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) September 23, 2021
Trump has never felt that rules should apply to him. A narcissist sees a boundary as a challenge.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery