To flesh out what I was thinking. Consider user X on server A, whose toots are federated to user Y on server B.
If A blocks B, (future) federation is broken. If X blocks Y, federation isn't broken but follower relationship is.
However, if B has replied to A's toot prior to a block, what controls does A have to remove B's reply from the timeline of server A, server B, or an unrelated server C where user Z may follow either X or Y?