Supreme Court sides with NRA over First Amendment lawsuit
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National Rifle Association signage in Dallas on May 17. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The Supreme Court unanimously sided with the National Rifle Association (NRA) on Thursday in its First Amendment claim against a New York official.
Why it matters: The court's ruling will allow the NRA to pursue a lawsuit against the official, who encouraged businesses to stop working with the firearms association after the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Context: After the shooting, Maria Vullo, the former superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, urged banks and insurance companies to stop doing business with the NRA.
- The association then sued Vullo, claiming she allegedly threatened insurance companies with enforcement actions if they did not disassociate from the NRA and other gun-promotion advocacy groups.
- Vullo, in court filings, argued she did not undermine the NRA's First Amendment rights.
What's inside: The court's majority opinion, penned by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said the NRA had plausibly claimed a violation of the First Amendment when it filed the lawsuit.
- "Government officials cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors," Sotomayor wrote, citing a previous Supreme Court ruling.
- "Ultimately, the critical takeaway is that the First Amendment prohibits government officials from wielding their power selectively to punish or suppress speech," she wrote.
Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch and liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote two separate concurring opinions.
Zoom out: The ruling may clarify how and when government advocacy against controversial action groups can become coercion. The lawsuit was one of two coercion cases before the court this session.
- The court is also considering a lawsuit from Republican-led states against the Biden administration's communications with social media platforms about the moderation of online misinformation.
What's next: The ruling against Vullo sends the lawsuit back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit for further proceedings.
Go deeper: The stakes of the Supreme Court's homelessness case
