US Supreme Court weighs NRA free speech fight with New York official

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Reuters

March 18, 2024 1:37 PM EDT


WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday grappled with whether a New York state official can be sued for violating the National Rifle Association's constitutional free speech rights by allegedly pressuring banks and insurers to avoid doing business with the influential group due to its gun rights advocacy.

The NRA is seeking to revive its 2018 lawsuit accusing Maria Vullo, a former superintendent of New York's Department of Financial Services, of unlawfully retaliating against it following a mass shooting in which 17 people were killed at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

The justices heard arguments in the NRA's appeal of a lower court's decision to throw out its suit against Vullo.

At issue is whether Vullo wielded her regulatory power to coerce New York financial institutions into cutting ties with the NRA in violation of free speech protections under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. Some questions posed by the justices aimed at distinguishing permissible government advocacy from unlawful pressure.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-weigh-nra-free-speech-fight-with-new-york-official-2024-03-18/

[SWBTATTReg]

1. What about the free speech rights of NY and its taxpayers? You are going around, touting your guns literally

in every corner of this Country, having tons of free advertisement (w/ every gun that is out there), and yet, you are griping about this, that someone / some entity is impacting your freedom of speech? It works both ways, obviously the NRA can't handle it/the negative pressures of folks objecting to your massive Gun lobby and your seemingly unlimited right to carry weapons everywhere.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Did they poll the dead victims?

[groundloop]

3. In Other Words - Gun manufacturers are afraid they might lose revenue.

Fuck the NRA, fuck gun manufacturers, fuck everything and everyone associated with the gun industry. It's a sad commentary on what our country has become when they're more important than the thousands of people every year who are killed by guns.