What happened: The Fourth Circuit Court ruled that a local county official in Virginia violated the First Amendment rights of one of their constituents by blocking (and then unblocking) them on a Facebook page that the official had declared as a space used to discuss official matters.

The court argued that access to government officials’ social media accounts should be treated the same way as access to physical public forums such as town halls in which the government communicates with people, where no one can be blocked from participating.

What’s next: The next circuit court to decide on a case like this will be the Second Circuit of Appeals in New York, which will decide — likely by this summer — whether the President has the right to block constituents using his Twitter handle.