The Supreme Court handed down its biggest ruling of the day, which was a unanimous ruling that the state of New York violated the First Amendment rights of the National Rifle Association.
Here’s the news:
Breaking: SCOTUS rules unanimously that a New York regulator violated the First Amendment by coercing banks to stop doing business with the NRA.https://t.co/e5qIfhIVws
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) May 30, 2024
According to The Reload, Sotomayor wrote the opinion:
New York’s attempts to push financial institutions to drop their relationships with the National Rifle Association over the group’s pro-gun views ran afoul of the Constitution.
That was the unanimous ruling handed down by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) on Thursday. The High Court overturned a lower court ruling against the NRA and sided with the gun-rights organization. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a Barack Obama appointee, wrote the opinion.
“For the reasons discussed above, the Court 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,” Justice Sotomayor wrote for the court in NRA v. Vullo.
SCOTUSblog’s Amy Howe writes:
“This is a case about whether the head of the NY Department of Financial Services violated the free speech rights of the NRA when she allegedly pressured entities that did business with the group to cut ties with the NRA. “Those allegations, if true, state a First Amendment claim,” the court holds.
The court vacates the Second Circuit’s decision and sends the case back for more proceedings consistent with this opinion. Says that on remand the Second Circuit “is free to reconsider whether Vullo is entitled to qualified immunity.”
Score one for the NRA.