The Supreme Court heard a case involving the NRA in New York and could prove to be a big boon to the organization. Founded by veterans of the Union Army in New York, the National Rifle Association morphed into a gun rights advocacy organization over the years. The case is to decide whether a New York State regulator coerced banking institutions to cut off the NRA from access to financial and insurance products.
New York has a history of purging political opponents using the power of government. Just recently, the NY Attorney General used a victimless disagreement to charge Donald Trump and almost bankrupt him. The New York Times says:
“It was a campaign by the state’s highest political officials to use their power to coerce a boycott of a political advocacy organization because they disagreed with its advocacy,” said David D. Cole, the national legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union, who argued on behalf of the N.R.A., adding that the officials’ actions had cost the group “millions of dollars.”
The lawyer for the New York officials, Neal K. Katyal, pushed back, arguing that state officials were performing their ordinary duties. “We think that it was an exercise of legitimate law enforcement,” he said.
The NRA has also recently been rocked by scandals, notably the Executive Director Wayne LaPierre allegedly using organizational funds for personal expenses. In response to New York’s harassment, the NRA attempted to reincorporate in Texas, though this remains on pause for now. Fox News continues:
Before the high court is the case National Rifle Association of America v. Vullo, which questions whether a government regulator threatens regulated entities with adverse regulatory actions if they do business with a controversial speaker, allegedly because of the government’s own hostility to the speaker’s viewpoint, violates the First Amendment.
The NRA filed its 2018 challenge following the revelation that former New York State Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo, at the order of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, allegedly blacklisted the NRA – effectively forcing banks and insurers to cut ties with the group.
The NRA is a boogeyman to the Left from its long institutional history of supporting gun rights. Newer groups such as the Firearms Policy Coalition, Gun Rights of America, and Second Amendment Foundation, are joining the fray and suing the government in every court they can.
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