The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) will represent the National Rifle Association (NRA) in a First Amendment case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) has found an unlikely ally in of the left-leaning American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which will represent the gun rights advocacy group at the U.S. Supreme Court in a case that centers of the constitutional right of free speech.
The NRA in 2018 brought a lawsuit against Maria Vullo, former superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS), alleging that she violated the First Amendment by pressuring regulated financial institutions like banks and insurers to stop doing business with the gun rights group.
The case made its way through the courts, eventually landing before the Supreme Court, which in November agreed to take it up.
“We’re representing the NRA at the Supreme Court in their case against New York’s Department of Financial Services for abusing its regulatory power to violate the NRA’s First Amendment rights. The government can’t blacklist an advocacy group because of its viewpoint,” the ACLU said in a post on X.
NRA President Charles Cotton welcomed the ACLU’s announcement.
“The NRA is proud to stand with the ACLU and others who recognize this important truth: regulatory authority cannot be used to silence political speech,” he said in a post on X.
Background
The lawsuit accuses Ms. Vullo of having warned regulated institutions that doing business with the NRA exposed them to “reputational risk,” while also allegedly secretly offering leniency to insurers for unrelated infractions if they dropped the gun rights lobby as their client.
Citing private telephone calls, internal insurer documents, and statements by an anonymous banking executive, the complaint alleged that a number of regulated financial institutions saw Ms. Vullo’s actions as “threatening” and either stopped their existing business arrangements with the NRA or refused new ones.
The complaint claims that the defendants’ actions resulted in significant damages to the NRA, with the group seeking millions of dollars in damages.
By Tom Ozimek
