• Login
  • Register
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

U.S. Supreme Court Reignites NRA Battle Over Free Speech Rights

by Dr Frederick Attenborough
31 May 2024 5:00 PM

In an important free speech ruling that warns public officials not to wield their power to punish speech they dislike, the U.S. Supreme Court has revived the National Rifle Association’s (NRA’s) protracted lawsuit against a New York state official whom the gun rights group accuse of coercing banks and insurers to avoid doing business with them.

The unanimous ruling from the nine-member bench of justices threw out a lower court’s ruling that had dismissed the NRA’s 2018 lawsuit against Maria Vullo, a former superintendent of New York’s Department of Financial Services. 

At issue is whether Vullo wielded her regulatory power to coerce New York financial institutions into blacklisting the NRA, effectively forcing banks and insurers to cut ties with the group and violating protections under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment against government restrictions on free speech.

Shortly after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 students and staff, Vullo sent “guidance letters” to banks and insurance companies encouraging them to sever ties with the NRA and other pro-Second Amendment organisations, citing unspecified “reputational risks” that “may arise”. 

Andrew Cuomo, the then Governor of New York, issued a same-day press release affirming Vullo’s stance and demanding companies sever ties with the gun rights group.

In a subsequent meeting with insurance executives at Lloyd’s, Vullo introduced her personal “views on gun control and [her] desire to leverage [her] powers to combat the availability of firearms” into the conversation. Specifically, she told the company that its partnership with NRA appeared to violate “an array of technical regulatory infractions” that could only be remedied by refusing to grant coverage to Second Amendment organisations like the NRA. 

The NRA accuses Vullo of unlawfully retaliating against it for its constitutionally protected gun rights advocacy by targeting it with an “implicit censorship regime”. Its suit, seeking unspecified monetary damages, alleges that New York’s blacklisting campaign sought to deprive the NRA of basic financial services and threatened its advocacy work.

The lawsuit also alleges that Vullo made “backroom threats” against regulated firms, accompanied by offers of leniency on unrelated infractions if regulated entities would agree to blacklist the NRA.

Last November, the Supreme Court agreed to hear National Rifle Association of America vs Vullo, after a federal appeals court in 2022 dismissed the group’s lawsuit, arguing Vullo’s actions were reasonable.

Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who has previously consistently sided against the NRA in Second Amendment cases, wrote the Supreme Court’s opinion, and concluded that the state’s actions – if ultimately proven – intruded on the group’s constitutionally protected advocacy.

The Supreme Court added that it “holds that the NRA plausibly alleged that Vullo violated the First Amendment by coercing DFS-regulated entities to terminate their business relationships with the NRA in order to punish or suppress the NRA’s advocacy.

As a result, the judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has now been overruled, and the case will be remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion, allowing the NRA to continue to argue its case.

“Nothing in this case immunises the NRA from regulation nor prevents government officials from condemning disfavoured views,” Sotomayor wrote, before adding: “The takeaway is that the First Amendment prohibits government officials from wielding their power selectively to punish or suppress speech, directly or (as alleged here) through private intermediaries.”

On that last point, the syllabus cited the Supreme Court’s previous Bantam Books, Inc. vs Sullivan ruling to confirm that a government official like Vullo “cannot do indirectly what she is barred from doing directly” and “cannot coerce a private party to punish or suppress disfavoured speech on her behalf”.

Justice Sotomayor also noted that New York State’s actions against insurance companies appeared to be part of a broader campaign by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo to put the NRA in “financial jeopardy” and “shut them down”.

ADF Senior Counsel Jeremy Tedesco hailed the decision as “a big win for every American”.

He said: “The First Amendment protects Americans from government censorship and punishment for disfavoured views, and the decision rightly affirms government officials can’t engage in censorship-by-proxy schemes like the pressure New York placed on banks and insurance companies to deny the NRA service for their constitutionally protected expression.”

Tags: DebankingFree SpeechNRAU.S. Supreme Court

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

Net Zero Race As Urgent as Covid Vaccine Hunt: Sir Patrick Vallance

Next Post

Why Modern British Homes Are Getting Mouldy

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

2 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
11 months ago

“, citing unspecified “reputational risks” that “may arise”. All warm, fluffy and vague. That is the new fascism that R Brand talks about.

32
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
11 months ago

That’s a nice insurance business you’ve got there. It would be a shame if anything happened to it. By the way, how are your kids doing at their new school?

25
-2

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

In Episode 35 of the Sceptic: Andrew Doyle on Labour’s Grooming Gang Shame, Andrew Orlowski on the India-UK Trade Deal and Canada’s Ignored Covid Vaccine Injuries

by Richard Eldred
9 May 2025
4

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest

BBC Quietly Edits Question Time After Wrongly ‘Correcting’ Richard Tice on Key Net Zero Claim

9 May 2025

News Round-Up

10 May 2025

Hugely Influential Covid Vaccine Study Claiming the Jabs Saved Millions of Lives Torn to Shreds in Medical Journal

10 May 2025

Electric Car Bursts into Flames on Driveway and Engulfs £550,000 Family Home

9 May 2025

Ed Miliband’s Housing Energy Plan Will Decimate the Rental Market and Send Rents Spiralling

10 May 2025

News Round-Up

55

Teenage Girl Banned by the Football Association For Asking Transgender Opponent “Are You a Man?” Wins Appeal With Help of Free Speech Union

21

Hugely Influential Covid Vaccine Study Claiming the Jabs Saved Millions of Lives Torn to Shreds in Medical Journal

20

Ed Miliband’s Housing Energy Plan Will Decimate the Rental Market and Send Rents Spiralling

14

What Does David Lammy Mean by a State?

27

Major British Chemical Plant Faces Closure as Energy Prices Soar

10 May 2025

NHS Nurse “Forced Out for Mocking Trans Flag” to Sue Hospital

10 May 2025

Hugely Influential Covid Vaccine Study Claiming the Jabs Saved Millions of Lives Torn to Shreds in Medical Journal

10 May 2025

Teenage Girl Banned by the Football Association For Asking Transgender Opponent “Are You a Man?” Wins Appeal With Help of Free Speech Union

10 May 2025

Reflections on Empire, Papacy and States

10 May 2025

POSTS BY DATE

May 2024
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Apr   Jun »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment
Perfecty
Do you wish to receive notifications of new articles?
Notifications preferences