Every justice on the nation's highest court on Thursday agreed with the country's largest pro-gun group on First Amendment grounds.
The National Rifle Association in May 2018 brought a federal lawsuit against Maria T. Vullo, then the Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, over allegations that, working under orders from since-resigned New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the state conspired to have the pro-gun group “financially blacklisted," urging banks and insurers to cut ties with the Association to suppress its pro-Second Amendment speech.
Even the left-leaning ACLU sided with the NRA on the case, saying, "NRA v. Vullo isn’t just about the NRA. It’s about all of our First Amendment rights to advocate for causes we believe in, without being targeted by public-private ventures of retaliation. If New York can do this to the NRA, then Oklahoma could similarly penalize criminal justice reformers advocating for bail reform, and Texas could target climate change organizations advancing the view that all fossil fuel extraction must end."
After winding its way through the courts for the past half-decade, including a September 2022 ruling from the U.S. Second Circuit that the NRA argues "opened the door to unrestrained harassment of advocacy groups by state officials," the U.S. Supreme Court last November granted a review of the question:
Does the First Amendment allow a government regulator to threaten regulated entities with adverse regulatory actions if they do business with a controversial speaker, as a consequence of (a) the government’s own hostility to the speaker’s viewpoint or (b) a perceived “general backlash” against the speaker’s advocacy?
When the smoke cleared this week, a unanimous court sided with the NRA with liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor penning the 31-page opinion for the majority that vacated the lower court's ruling and remanded the case for further review.
Sotomayor wrote that, while Vullo was "free to criticize the NRA" the New York regulator “could not wield her power, however, to threaten enforcement actions against DFS-regulated entities in order to punish or suppress the NRA’s gun-promotion advocacy," going on to say, "One can reasonably infer from the complaint that Vullo coerced DFS-regulated entities to cut their ties with the NRA in order to stifle the NRA’s gun-promotion advocacy and advance her views on gun control."
The gun rights group, which just held its 154th Annual Meetings in Dallas earlier this month, applauded the ruling.
"This is a landmark victory for the NRA and all who care about our First Amendment freedom," said William A. Brewer III, counsel to the NRA. "The opinion confirms what the NRA has known all along: New York government officials abused the power of their office to silence a political enemy. This is a victory for the NRA’s millions of members and the freedoms that define America."
Banner image: A factory-engraved Colt wheel gun at the 2022 NRAAM. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
