• by Wendy Davis , Yesterday

The developer of ICEBlock, Joshua Aaron, has sued the Trump administration for allegedly making "unconstitutional threats and demands" that coerced Apple into removing the app from its marketplace.

ICEBlock, which launched in April, enables people to report public sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Within six months, the app had drawn more than 1.1 million users, according to the complaint, filed Monday in Washington, D.C. federal court.

Apple expelled the app from its marketplace on October 2. That same day, Attorney General Pam Bondi took credit for its removal, telling Fox News: "We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store -- and Apple did so."

She alleged at the time that the app was "designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs."

Aaron counters in his complaint that ICEBlock was "was designed to facilitate community sharing of publicly available information," and argues that the app is protected by the First Amendment.

The app's "sole function is to provide information and alerts so that communities can stay informed and make safe, lawful decisions," the complaint alleges.

According to the complaint, the app broadcasts information about ICE sightings to users who are within a five-mile radius of agents' locations; data about sightings is only available for four hours.

"Fundamentally, ICEBlock neither enables nor encourages confrontation -- it simply delivers time-limited location information to help users stay aware of their surroundings in a responsible and nonviolent way," the complaint states.

Aaron's complaint also alleges that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and others "falsely claimed that ICEBlock and similar apps are responsible for violent attacks on law enforcement officers."

"No actual evidence has ever been cited to support these claims," the complaint says.

The developer is seeking a declaration that Bondi and other officials violated the First Amendment, and an injunction prohibiting the Trump administration from "coercing, threatening, or demanding Apple or other app distribution services in order to stop distribution of the app," among other orders.

The lawsuit is similar to one brought by attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri, and five individuals who alleged that their social media posts relating to COVID-19 policies and vaccines were suppressed due to government pressure.

The attorneys general and individuals specifically claimed that federal officials violated the First Amendment by wrongly pressuring tech platforms to “censor disfavored speakers and viewpoints.”

A trial judge sided with the plaintiffs and issued a broad injunction prohibiting numerous federal agencies and officials from attempting to persuade social media platforms to take down posts protected by the First Amendment.

The Biden administration appealed Doughty's order to the 5th Circuit, which narrowed the injunction, but still prohibited some officials, including members of the White House's staff, from attempting to “coerce” or “significantly” encourage platforms' decisions about content moderation.

The Supreme Court later struck down the injunction, ruling that the people who sued lacked “standing” to proceed because they hadn't shown a “substantial risk” that their First Amendment rights would be violated in the near future.