June 1, 2024 – The Washington Post editorial board recognized the historic Supreme Court win for Brewer client, the National Rifle Association of America (NRA). The editorial, “The NRA Deserved its First Amendment Win at the Supreme Court,” observes, “…the court’s 9-0 ruling in National Rifle Association v. Vullo was a positive development in two ways: It showed that the fractious justices can still unite around certain basic constitutional principles; and the constitutional principle they rallied behind in this case was the sacred one of free speech.” The unanimous ruling in favor of the NRA was on May 30, 2024.
In speaking of a 2018 “blacklisting campaign” against the NRA undertaken by former New York state regulator Maria T. Vullo, the Post writes, “To be sure, state officials such as Ms. Vullo have every right to punish actual legal infractions by any companies that do business with NRA members, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the court, explained. And they have every right to speak out against gun violence and the NRA. What they cannot do, however, ‘is use the power of the State to punish or suppress disfavored expression,’ Justice Sotomayor wrote. ‘At the heart of the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause is the recognition that viewpoint discrimination is uniquely harmful to a free and democratic society.’”
The NRA was represented by the Brewer firm, the ACLU, and First Amendment Scholar Eugene Volokh.
Read the editorial here.