Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > alt.society.zeitgeist > #73

N.R.A. Suit Claims Cuomo’s ‘Blacklisting’ Has Cost It Millions of Dollars

Cross-posted to 5 groups.

Show all headers | View raw

“If I could have put the N.R.A. out of business, I would have 
done it 20 years ago,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said of 
the National Rifle Association. The two sides are locked in a 
legal battle in federal court.CreditCreditChang W. Lee/The New 
York Times

The long-running battle between Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York 
and the National Rifle Association, which says it has lost 
millions of dollars because of state officials’ political 
agenda, entered another round of legal wrangling and public 
posturing this week.

Mr. Cuomo announced on Friday that the state was moving to 
dismiss a lawsuit the N.R.A. filed in federal court in May, 
which he called “frivolous.” The lawsuit, which accused state 
officials of “blacklisting” the gun rights organization, was 
amended with sharper language last month.

At issue is whether New York regulators violated the 
constitutional rights of the N.R.A. by preventing financial 
institutions and insurers in the state from doing business with 
the organization.

In the lawsuit, the N.R.A. accused Mr. Cuomo, as well as the New 
York State Department of Financial Services and its 
superintendent, Maria T. Vullo, of discrimination that violated 
the organization’s right to free speech.

Last month’s amended complaint included more details about how 
state regulators have squeezed the organization.

The N.R.A. said officials had discouraged banks and insurers, 
including Lockton Companies and Chubb Group Holdings, from 
working with it.

If insurers remain wary, the organization said, it could be 
forced to shut down some of its programs, such as its online 
video channel, NRATV.

“Defendants’ conduct indeed shocks the conscience,” the 
complaint said.

Mr. Cuomo’s response on Friday was terse: “If I could have put 
the N.R.A. out of business, I would have done it 20 years ago.”

While the complaint said the N.R.A. had “suffered tens of 
millions of dollars in damages” because of New York State 
officials, it did not make specific claims about the 
organization’s current financial standing.

Much of the argument revolves around Carry Guard, an insurance 
program started by the N.R.A. last year that was meant to cover 
legal fees for people who fired a weapon in self-defense.

New York financial regulators began investigating the program in 
October. That investigation was continuing when a gunman killed 
17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, 
Fla., in February.

Survivors of the shooting have led protests in support of 
stricter gun control. Politicians have voiced their support, 
including Mr. Cuomo, who stretched out on a sidewalk to 
participate in a “die-in” with students in Lower Manhattan in 
March. Several businesses including car rental services, 
airlines, technology companies and insurers announced that they 
were cutting ties with the N.R.A.

Three months after the Parkland shooting, the Department of 
Financial Services announced that Lockton and an affiliate would 
pay a fine of $7 million while Chubb and a subsidiary would pay 
$1.3 million for underwriting Carry Guard.

According to the department, the program “unlawfully provided 
liability insurance to gun owners for acts of intentional 
wrongdoing.”

Days later, the N.R.A. filed its initial complaint, arguing that 
the state’s aims went far beyond its opposition to Carry Guard. 
“From the outset, it was clear that the investigation was meant 
to advance Cuomo’s political agenda by stifling the N.R.A.’s 
speech and retaliating against the N.R.A. based on its viewpoint 
on gun control issues,” it said, claiming that its 
constitutional rights had been violated through conspiracy and 
implicit censorship.

Last month’s amendments added two more accusations: that state 
officials had interfered with potential revenue and that they 
had violated the N.R.A.’s freedom of association.

“Defendants seek to silence one of America’s oldest 
constitutional rights advocates,” it said. “If their abuses are 
not enjoined, they will soon, substantially, succeed.”

In announcing the filing to dismiss the suit, Mr. Cuomo said 
that “while the N.R.A. tries to play the victim, New York stands 
with the real victims — the thousands of people whose lives are 
cut short by gun violence every year.”

The N.R.A. is a staunch, sometimes incendiary defender of the 
Second Amendment with a long record of hobbling regulatory 
efforts, grading legislators on their voting histories and 
running ads suggesting that the rights of gun owners are forever 
under siege.

During the 2016 presidential election cycle, the N.R.A. spent 
$20 million to persuade voters to reject Hillary Clinton and 
another $11 million in support of Donald J. Trump. Public 
records from that year showed that the organization’s expenses 
exceeded revenues by about $46 million.

Donations to the organization spiked after the Parkland 
shooting, according to records from the Federal Election 
Commission.

William Brewer, a partner at Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors who 
is lead counsel in the organization’s lawsuit against the New 
York officials, said on Saturday that the N.R.A. is growing and 
“in good financial standing.”

“However, the conduct of defendants, from the home state of the 
N.R.A., now threaten the financial growth and overall trajectory 
of the organization,” he said.

On Saturday afternoon, Mr. Cuomo doubled down in his opposition 
to Carry Guard, announcing a “national effort urging states 
across the country to follow New York’s lead and outlaw” the 
insurance program.

“At a time when Washington has completely abdicated its 
responsibility to protect the American people, states must 
lead,” he said in a statement.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/04/nyregion/nra-broke-financial-
lawsuit.html
   

Back to alt.society.zeitgeist | Previous | Next | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

N.R.A. Suit Claims Cuomo’s ‘Blacklisting’ Has Cost It Millions of Dollars "Gene Poole" <gp@dont-email.me> - 2018-09-21 00:31 +0200

csiph-web