WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has dismissed a case over former President Donald Trump's efforts to block critics from his personal Twitter account.
Lower courts had ruled against Trump.
But the justices said Monday there was nothing left to the case after Trump was permanently suspended from Twitter and ended his presidential term in January.
In their decision, the justices instructed the lower courts to dismiss it as moot, CBS News reported.
Twitter banned Trump two days after the deadly attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters on Jan. 6.
The company said its decision was "due to the risk of further incitement of violence."
The court also formally threw out an appeals court ruling that found Trump violated the First Amendment whenever he blocked a critic to silence a viewpoint.
"As Twitter made clear, the right to cut off speech lies most powerfully in the hands of private digital platforms," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote. "The extent to which that power matters for purposes of the First Amendment and the extent to which that power could lawfully be modified raise interesting and important questions. This petition, unfortunately, affords us no opportunity to confront them."
