ACLU comes to the NRA’s free-speech defense
The American Civil Liberties Union has come to the defense of the National Rifle Association, setting aside its usual pro-gun control position to defend the First Amendment rights of the gun-rights group.
In May, the NRA filed a lawsuit against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo.
The NRA claims Cuomo and Vullo, in an effort to undermine the NRA’s ability to operate, have used state power to threaten financial institutions in order to prevent them from doing business with the NRA.
Such an effort, motivated by political hostility to the NRA, violates the First Amendment rights of the gunrights group, the NRA argues.
On Friday, the ACLU filed a friendof-the-court brief in federal court supporting this argument from the NRA.
“Although public officials are free to express their opinions and may condemn viewpoints or groups they view as inimical to public welfare, they cannot abuse their regulatory authority to retaliate against disfavored advocacy organizations and to impose burdens on those organizations’ ability to conduct lawful business,” the brief says.
That is an important distinction. One does not need to agree or disagree with the particular positions or advocacy efforts of the NRA to recognize that it would be a gross overstep of government power for politicians to rig the system against it.
While Cuomo should feel free to release statements reading, “If the NRA goes bankrupt, I will remember them in my thoughts and prayers,” as he did in the past week, it’s another thing entirely to use state resources to undermine the NRA’s ability to operate.
For instance, in April, the New York State Department of Financial Services sent “guidance letters” to financial institutions reading, “The Department encourages regulated institutions to review any relationships they have with the NRA or similar gun promotion organizations, and to take prompt actions to managing these risks and promote public health and safety.”
Such letters, coupled with what the NRA says were “backchannel threats,” wrongly leverage state power to make it difficult for the NRA to exist.
“There are acceptable measures that the state can take to curb gun violence,” notes David Cole, ACLU legal director. “But using its extensive financial regulatory authority to penalize advocacy groups because they ‘promote’ guns isn’t one of them.”
If the allegations from the NRA are true, it would set a terrible precedent for politicians in New York and elsewhere to get away with such behavior.
Stifling political opponents through the regulatory power of government is untenable in a nation predicated on respect for liberty.
If Cuomo and others want to defeat the NRA, or other gun-rights groups, they should do so in the marketplace of ideas.
But leveraging government power to skip over debate and discussion is the behavior of authoritarians, not individuals who recognize the importance of liberty or the Constitution.
It is a credit to the integrity of the ACLU that the reliably pro-gun control organization can recognize such overreach and defend the freedom of an organization with which it commonly disagrees to engage in the free exchange of ideas.