Sen. John Cornyn Unblocks Critics on Twitter — After Free Speech Group Hints That It May Sue

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has unblocked critics on his official Twitter account after a free-speech organization with a record of forcing the issue in court advised him that the practice leaves him open to a lawsuit.

Last week, the Knight First Amendment Institute fired off a letter to the Texas Republican asking him to unblock a constituent who posted a critical comment on his Twitter feed. Citing court rulings, the group pointed out that public officials are in violation of constitutional free-speech guarantees when they ban critics from their official social media accounts.

If the Knight Institute sounds familiar, that may be because the Columbia University-based group won a victory over President Donald Trump in federal court last year over whether he can legally block critics on Twitter.

Lo and behold, the same day Knight sent its letter to Cornyn, the organization tweeted that the constituent the senator had barred from his account — a former intern in his office, no less — had been unblocked.

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