{"id":2484,"date":"2023-11-07T15:54:14","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T15:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/?p=2484"},"modified":"2023-11-07T15:54:14","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T15:54:14","slug":"vox-writer-more-disturbed-by-possibility-of-nra-court-victory-than-the-violation-of-its-1st-amendment-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/?p=2484","title":{"rendered":"Vox Writer More Disturbed by Possibility of NRA Court Victory Than the Violation of Its 1st Amendment Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\">\n<figure><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/vullo.jpg\" data-caption=\"Former New York State Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo (courtesy \"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"319\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/vullo-696x319.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/vullo-696x319.jpg 696w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/vullo-300x137.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/vullo-700x321.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/vullo-768x352.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/vullo-150x69.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/vullo-560x257.jpg 560w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/vullo.jpg 860w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" alt=\"Maria Vullo\" title=\"Maria Vullo\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former New York State Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo (courtesy <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-next-post-navi\">\n<p>\nNext Post Coming Soon&#8230;\u25b6\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>In February 2018, the Parkland, Florida, school shooting happened \u2014 killing 17 high school students and school staff. After this shooting, DFS issued a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/document\/682624756\/NRA-Complaint\">guidance,<\/a>\u201d signed by [former New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) Superintendent Maria] Vullo, which encouraged insurers to \u201ccontinue evaluating and managing their risks, including reputational risks, that may arise from their dealings with the NRA or similar gun promotion organizations.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p id=\"5QrrPP\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>To be clear, this guidance did not explicitly threaten to take any action against insurers who continued to do lawful business with the NRA. But that does not change the fact that DFS, an agency whose responsibilities include law enforcement, and that had recently brought a $13 million enforcement action against insurance companies that did illegal business with the NRA, was now suggesting that those same companies might face consequences if they did other, legal business with the NRA.<\/em><\/p>\n<p id=\"7aCdmw\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>This guidance, and similar post-Parkland communications between DFS and the insurance industry, do potentially violate the First Amendment. While the Constitution permits a government official to ask any company to stop doing business with the NRA, it\u00a0does not typically permit the government to\u00a0coerce\u00a0private businesses\u00a0into halting lawful business with an advocacy group. And DFS\u2019s guidance, which was issued so soon after DFS opened its Carry Guard investigation, looks suspiciously like coercion.<\/em><\/p>\n<p id=\"UXjmtZ\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Now this case is before a Supreme Court that is dominated by Republican appointees, and that has a history of handing down\u00a0recklessly broad decisions benefiting gun rights organizations. \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p id=\"5CRP8X\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>The facts of\u00a0Vullo\u00a0aren\u2019t quite as egregious as those in\u00a0Bantam Books [v. Sullivan]. DFS\u2019s guidance does not mention the possibility of any kind of enforcement action against an insurer who continues to work with the NRA. And there\u2019s no indication that DFS sent an armed police officer to New York insurance companies to check in on whether they had, in fact, dropped their business with the NRA.<\/em><\/p>\n<p id=\"67kFcx\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Even so, the guidance does raise serious First Amendment concerns. Imagine, for example, that a police officer arrested you for shoplifting \u2014 or some other crime that you legitimately did commit, and that a police officer legitimately may arrest you for committing. Then imagine that this same police officer shows up at your workplace a few months later and pressures you to end your relationship with another company. Would you feel free to refuse? Or would you think that this officer, who so recently placed you under arrest, was implicitly threatening to do so again?<\/em><\/p>\n<p id=\"jbWrvT\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>That\u2019s basically what happened in\u00a0Vullo. DFS brought a completely legitimate enforcement action against three insurance companies, arising out of those companies\u2019 decision to administer or underwrite an insurance product that no sensible government would allow to exist. Then, months later, the same agency sent a guidance to all New York insurers \u2014 including these same three companies \u2014 informing them that DFS \u201cencourages regulated institutions to\u00a0review any relationships they have with the NRA\u00a0or similar gun promotion organizations, and to take prompt actions to managing these risks and promote\u00a0public health\u00a0and safety.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p id=\"iUUS7A\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>It\u2019s not hard to read that guidance as a coercive attempt to punish the NRA because New York\u2019s government disagrees with the NRA\u2019s political advocacy in favor of looser gun laws.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u2014 Ian Millhiser in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/scotus\/23948899\/supreme-court-nra-vullo-new-york-insurance-murder-carry-guard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A boneheaded state official may have just handed the NRA a big Supreme Court victory<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-next-post-navi\">\n<p>\nNext Post Coming Soon&#8230;\u25b6\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/vox-writer-more-disturbed-by-possibility-of-nra-court-victory-than-the-violation-of-its-1st-amendment-rights\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former New York State Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo (courtesy Next Post Coming Soon&#8230;\u25b6 In February 2018, the Parkland, Florida, school shooting happened \u2014 killing 17 high school students and school staff. After this shooting, DFS issued a \u201cguidance,\u201d signed by [former New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) Superintendent Maria] Vullo, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reviews"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}