The Daily Fuckup

By May 10, 2022, Donald Trump’s bid to force Twitter to restore his account had already hit a serious legal setback. Four days earlier, on May 6, a federal judge in Northern California dismissed the amended complaint in the case, but left the door open for another try by allowing the plaintiffs to file a further amended complaint by May 27, 2022.

The dispute began after Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s account on January 8, 2021, citing the risk of further incitement of violence after the Capitol attack. Trump then sued Twitter and Jack Dorsey, arguing that the company’s decision violated his rights and was tied to government pressure. Judge James Donato was not persuaded by the version of the case before him. In his order, he concluded the First Amendment theory failed because Twitter is a private company, not the state, and the complaint did not plausibly show state action.

The dismissal was a setback, not a final end. The court dismissed the amended complaint without prejudice and gave the plaintiffs a chance to revise their claims. That meant Trump had not won reinstatement, and Twitter’s ban remained in place after the ruling, but the litigation itself was still alive in mid-May 2022.

The order also rejected the related claims tied to Florida law and Section 230. For Trump, that left the lawsuit in worse shape than before, while still short of a final judgment shutting the case down for good. The practical result on May 10 was simple: his account was still suspended, and the courtroom effort to force a comeback had not delivered.