ACLU Defends The NRA Against Andrew Cuomo’s ‘Blacklisting Campaign’

| August 27, 2018

NRA
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) defended the National Rifle Association (NRA) by opposing New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s attempts to put the gun advocacy group out of business.

The ACLU has submitted an amicus brief in federal court, weighing in on the on-going battle between the Democrat Governor and the NRA.

Wait, what?

The Daily Caller reports the NRA filed a lawsuit against both Cuomo, and the state’s financial regulatory bureau contending that the agency instituted a “blacklisting campaign” by threatening insurers and other financial institutions that interacted with the organization. The bureau warned that by continuing to do business with the NRA, banks and insurance companies could face regulatory action.

The NRA has subsequently been deprived of basic insurance and may be “unable to exist as a not-for-profit or pursue its advocacy mission.”

While the ACLU has disagreed with the NRA on the meaning of the Second Amendment, the friend-of-the-court brief supported the NRA on behalf of the First.

“Those allegations [made by the NRA] represent a blatant violation of the First Amendment,” the ACLU states. “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.”

Cuomo has been a voracious critic of the NRA and has admitted to “proudly” trying to strong arm the group out of existence.

“When an organization that is normally on the opposite side from you, joins you in a huge fight against a devout enemy, you know the gun-hating, gun-banning, bullying, anti-Second Amendment, enemies of Freedom are way out of control,” Marion Hammer responded on behalf of the NRA.

I’m not a litigious type, normally. But I hope, after the NRA wins this court battle its lawyers sue the crap out of Cuomo and New York’s financial regulatory bureau for this egregious misuse of power.

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Gun Grabbing Fascists

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MSG Eric

Uh, this is a duffelblog post right?

Next thing you’ll try to tell us that dogs and cats will be living together, 40 years of darkness and volcanoes, the dead rising from the grave……

desert

Trouble is….if they sue the CRAP out of cuomo…there won’t be anything left but his shoes! 😉

Graybeard

snerk

Ex-PH2

… disasters of biblical proportion!

Mikey Weinstein will stop pestering military bases about Christian this and that.

A Proud Infidel®™️

…dogs dancing with cats, MASS HYSTERIA!!!

JacktheJarhead

Damn! Beat me to it!

Sapper3307

Howe many dollars does Cuomo have??? I bet he has a very large firearm collection nobody knows about that government can impound and sell.

David

Might surprise many to know that the ACLU has sided with the NRA more often than opposed them, according to an article I read in American Rifleman many years back.

5JC

I’m not surprised at all. While the ACLU is a den of rabid socialists they do understand the importance of freedom of speech. When that gets suppressed they are in the same boat.

Mason

They’re both civil rights organizations, so there’s plenty of overlap.

rgr769

All these Demonrat politicians are corrupt to their cores.

Commissioner Wretched

Well, I can die now.

I’ve seen everything.

Green Thumb

Word.

Notice who is not commenting…..

Denise Williams

…it’s the end as we know it, and I feel fine

AnotherPat

From the ACLU:

https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/new-york-state-cant-be-allowed-stifle-nras-political-speech

“New York State Can’t Be Allowed to Stifle the NRA’s Political Speech”

“In the ACLU’s view, targeting a nonprofit advocacy group and seeking to deny it financial services because it promotes a lawful activity (the use of guns) violates the First Amendment. Because we believe the governor’s actions, as alleged, threaten the First Amendment rights of all advocacy organizations, the ACLU on Friday filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the NRA’s right to have its day in court.”

11B-Mailclerk

Because? He figured on having a Corrupt Clinton appointing Federal judges, including SCOTUS.

Had the dems and nevertrumps won, there would now be two more anti civil rights types on SCOTUS, and scads more of them on Federal benches.

There are still those supposedly on the right that think this left outcome would have “fixed” the Republican party.

“Fixed” , like with a Veterinarian?

Assuming we all support Trump’s side this November, History may record this decade as the time of turning away from the collectivist Abyss.

Or, if we do not, it will be the time of collectively jumping in it, headfirst.

Choose wisely, folks.

Ret_25X

perhaps, but one must understand both Nietzsche and Hegel.

Which means, one must understand the fallacies involved in the modern progressive mind. Foremost of which is the concept that capital is not created out of saving, but out of labor.

This fallacy leads them to desire to “control” (by which the modern progessives appear to mean steal) both the labor of and wages collected by all to be funneled into “collective” coffers.

Coffers they intend to own.

Of course, any voice advocating any form of liberty or self sufficiency must be silenced. No competing thought can be allowed.

This is why all so called collectivist models always end in a gulag.

The ACLU is acutely aware that the first into a gulag are always the non-producing people of the academy, literati, and journalism.

They may desire a collectivist outcome, but not the inevitable collectivist end to themselves. They will gladly support the NRA until they don’t–which will be an important clue that they believe they have succeeded in stealing the USA from the deplorables who see themselves as citizens rather than serfs.

5th/77thFA

I am not an attorney. I am not even a lawer. I did study business law way back in the day for several semesters. Not sure of New York, but the guvernators actions have got to be against so many laws, that the NRA will get money for days. May take awhile for it to wind it’s way thru the court system. Hope ol’ guv has got a stash somewhere. The ACLU defending this isn’t a real great big surprise. As posted above, they do have a good record on 1stA.

2/17 Air Cav

It is the government of New York State that is waging a war against the NRA, using whatever tools it can muster to wage that war. It’s one thing for private individuals to use speech to counter speech with which it disagrees and while I don’t like boycotts, if private individuals want to engage in that sort of thing, okie-doke. It is quite another when a gov’t uses its powers to quash speech. Governor Cuomo isn’t a private actor in this and he doesn’t get to unleash the power of gov’t against that with which he disagrees. I hope the NY taxpayers enjoy footing the bill when the NRA wins and is awarded damages and fees.

Ret_25X

As long as the politicos can make them believe that the actions are keeping the trough flowing with the gruel.

No one is so short sighted as a voter seeking to secure for themselves funds from the public treasury.

A Proud Ingidel®™

Ditto that and I’m sure that Cuomo has the NYC voting rigged in his favor thus he’s not afraid of reelection BUT Nooh Yawk State is gonna lose this case big time.

MSG Eric

Well, from the way I hear it they just paid for the education of every medical student attending and who will be attending NYU in the future. So, I’m sure they won’t mind a few more million.

5th/77thFA

Yes sir, gonna suck even more to be a NY taxpayer. Makes you wonder who is advising the guv. Be my guess we’ll see a follow up post on this subject under teh stoopid eventually.

J.R. Johnson

Forget the civil financial issues, they need to go after “Govenor” Cuomo for abuse of power and racketeering. That clown needs to be locked up along with his pals the Clintons!

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

I wonder if cuomo’s body guards all carry pepper spray and gun free 4 inch round patches on their jackets since Herr cuomo is anti 2A and believes that we should not own firearms.

RGR 4-78

Your yolks are the best.

Ex-PH2

This is a joke, right?

No?

Uh, well, uh… huh.

Ah, I have it! Once one anti-1A and anti-2A Bozo is defeated and has to pay for it, the other groups will see the expense and decide ‘maybe we should just back off a bit’. Or something like that.

Roger in Republic

Only wise people learn from the mistakes of others. My experience tells me that anyone who would try this kind of thing in the first place is not going to be wise enough to ever learn.

Ex-PH2

Ah, so! Then it will be “pull back, regroup and strike again” technique, which does NOT always work?

But this IS a crack in the smug plate or armor that people like Cuomo hide behind, isn’t it?

Small steps.

MrBill

Glad to see this. The NRA and ACLU have both suffered from mission creep in recent years, in my opinion; but when they focus on their core missions, I support both.

Fyrfighter

MrBill, just out of curiosity, could you elaborate on the “Mission Creep” you mention? Since the ACLU was founded by a bunch of communist lawyers, intent on infiltrating the union movement with communist sympathizers and spies, I’d say they’re still generally holding true to their founding.
As for the NRA, while they have occasionally knuckled under to demands of the anti-gunners (trying to go along to get along i guess), they have for the most part seemed to stay true to their founding as well.
That being said, if you have some examples that falls outside those lines, I’d love to hear them, as I hate to have an opinion on a subject that’s not fully informed with all avail. data.
Thanks!

Alberich

Are you sure you’re not mixing the ACLU up with the National Lawyers’ Guild?

Veritas Omnia Vincit

This is why I donate to both the NRA and the ACLU.

For all the shit people give the ACLU they forget these moments which are not nearly as rare as some would like you to believe.

They even defended Limbaugh from having to release his medical records during the drug case he was involved in.

They defend shitty people like Nazis and they defend decent people like NRA members in defense of our rights.

HMC Ret

11B-Mailclerk: “Assuming we all support Trump’s side this November, History may record this decade as the time of turning away from the collectivist Abyss.”

Said many times on these pages, the upcoming election is the most important since the 2016 (lol) election, which was the most important in my lifetime. He who controls the WH controls SCOTUS, which in no small measure controls the direction of the country. Libtards win and put two on the SC, we’re over the cliff into the abyss. Trump is reelected and we not only don’t go over, we retreat a good measure from it.

I question what type the libtards will put forward: a rabid liberal hatred of all things Trump or a ‘moderate’? If a moderate who wins, look for them to quickly abandon the moderate tone and show their true colors of being a rabid liberal. The libtards can’t shed their rabid liberal stripes. It’s not in their nature to do so.