Second Circuit Dismisses NRA’s First Amendment Challenge Against Former New York Official

A former New York financial regulator did not violate the NRA’s First Amendment rights by pressuring insurers not to work with them, and, if she did, she was protected by qualified immunity.

That’s what a three-judge panel at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday. Reversing a lower court’s holding, the panel argued Maria Vullo, the former Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, did nothing wrong when she wrote a letter to financial institutions urging them to drop relationships with the NRA and other “gun promotion organizations” after the 2018 Parkland school shooting.

It said Vullo “acted reasonably and in good faith” using methods that were constitutional.