ACLU to represent NRA in NY free speech challenge

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is representing the National Rifle Association in a free speech case against New York’s Department of Financial Services.

“We’re representing the NRA at the Supreme Court in their case against New York’s Department of Financial Services for abusing its regulatory power to violate the NRA’s First Amendment rights,” the ACLU said in a post in Saturday thread on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “The government can’t blacklist an advocacy group because of its viewpoint.”

Despite their representation of the gun rights group, the ACLU said it does not “support the NRA's mission or its viewpoints on gun rights, and we don’t agree with their goals, strategies, or tactics” in another post in the thread. 

“But we both know that government officials can't punish organizations because they disapprove of their views,” the ACLU continued.

Back in November, the Supreme Court said it would hear the NRA’s case against a former New York regulator, alleging she infringed on the gun rights group’s speech by way of discouraging banks and insurers from working with them.

Maria Vullo, the former superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, pushed banks and insurers to consider the “reputational risks” of collaborating with the NRA in the wake of the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, according to court filings. 

The NRA then filed its suit against Vullo and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.), saying it had “suffered tens of millions of dollars in damages” because of officials’ “blacklisting” of the group, which they said violated its First Amendment rights.