The National Rifle Association, best known for defending the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment, won a rare Supreme Court decision on First Amendment free speech on Thursday.
In a 9-0 decision, the justices agreed that the NRA had a plausible free speech claim that it had been harassed and threatened by state financial regulators in New York because of its advocacy for gun rights.
“Government officials cannot attempt to coerce private parties to punish or suppress opinions of which the government disapproves,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said for the court.
In the past, the court has said that public officials have the right to free speech to defend their policies and encourage others to follow their guidelines.
But in this case, the court said state officials can go too far and violate the First Amendment if they use their authority to threaten or punish organizations whose views they oppose.
The NRA said it sued then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Maria Vullo, his state superintendent of financial services, after they issued formal guidance letters urging all banks and insurance companies to “sever their ties” with the gun rights group.
Cuomo tweeted: “We are forcing the NRA into financial jeopardy. We will not stop until we close them.”
ACLU national legal director David Cole argued the case on behalf of the NRA. This “was a campaign by the state's highest political officials to use their power to force a boycott of a political advocacy organization because they disagreed with its advocacy,” he told the judges.
The Biden administration also backed the NRA's free speech claim, but urged the justices to make clear that government officials cannot be sued simply for arguing strongly against the views of groups like the NRA.
The court did not rule that the NRA would win its case, but revived its free speech lawsuit after it was dismissed by New York's Second Circuit Court.
