A federal judge will decide if Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill can block people on his personal Twitter account or if doing so violates their free speech rights.
Merrill and the plaintiffs in the 2018 lawsuit filed motions last month supporting their respective claims. The lawsuit filed by three blocked Twitter users contends that Merrill is putting a "viewpoint-based restriction" to information about, and interaction with, his public office.
Lawyers for Merrill argued the account is personal, and not an official account of the state office. They said that people have other means of contacting him.