https://www.supremecourt.gov/o...3pdf/22-842_6kg7.pdf

I have not got a chance to read it yet.

I read the syllabus. It's a First Amendment case. Sounds like an easy one.

But I bet the NRA bills it as a Second Amendment win.

Oh yes, it is a 1st Amendment case.

It rejects the idea the “Left” of the Court is out to destroy anything that touches firearms or the NRA.

Here's the gist of it:

“Government officials cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the most senior liberal, wrote for the court.

“Ultimately, the critical takeaway is that the First Amendment prohibits government officials from wielding their power selectively to punish or suppress speech,” Sotomayor added.

The NRA claimed that Maria Vullo, the former superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, not only leaned on insurance companies to part ways with the gun lobby but threatened enforcement actions against those firms if they failed to comply.

At the center of the dispute was a meeting Vullo had with insurance market Lloyd’s of London in 2018 in which the NRA claims she offered to not prosecute other violations as long as the company helped with the campaign against gun groups. Vullo tried to wave off the significance of the meeting, arguing in part that the NRA’s allegations of what took place were not specific.


Vullo, who served in Democratic former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration, said her enforcement targeted an insurance product that is illegal in New York: third-party policies sold through the NRA that cover personal injury and criminal defense costs following the use of a firearm. Critics dubbed the policies “murder insurance.”

The decision will provide some clarity to government regulators — both liberal and conservative — about how far they may go to pressure private companies that do business with controversial advocacy groups.

“This is a landmark victory for the NRA and all who care about our First Amendment freedom,” William A. Brewer III, a lawyer for the association, said in a statement. “The opinion confirms what the NRA has known all along: New York government officials abused the power of their office to silence a political enemy.”

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/30...amendment/index.html

I believe the 9-0 decision was a message to the lower courts.


However I believe that there was a further message being sent in that Sotomayor a very left judge (albeit with a very keen legal mind) was the Justice selected to write the opinion.