Star Parker Founder & President, Center for Urban Renewal and Education
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Opinion

Grateful the Supreme Court vindicates NRA’s free speech claim

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Star Parker Founder & President, Center for Urban Renewal and Education
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In May, the U.S. Supreme Court revived a National Rifle Association’s lawsuit that accused a New York state official of violating its First Amendment rights. The decision reinstated a lawsuit the NRA filed in 2018 alleging that the head of the New York State Department of Financial Services pressured banks and insurance companies not to do business with gun rights organizations after a shooting at a Florida high school.

Watch the above video as Straight Arrow News contributor Star Parker explains why her organization, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), joined an amicus brief in defense of the insurance companies. Parker argues this case is another instance of the Biden administration’s shameful attack on First Amendment rights.


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The following is an excerpt from the above video:

We [CURE] joined with more than 30 other organizations in filing [an] amicus friend of the court brief with the Supreme Court in defense of the insurance companies’ freedom of association. We argued that the government cannot censor or punish a speaker or entity like the NRA by punishing third-party associations and organizations like the insurance companies who dare to associate with the speaker, in this case, the NRA.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court said that [the] New York official could not use her power to “threaten enforcement actions against entities that the department regulated ‘to punish or suppress the NRA’s gun promotion advocacy.'” The U.S. Constitution protects the rights of individuals from government officials who are willing to trample on those rights to accomplish their political goals.

This case is an instance of such disregard for the rule of law in the state of New York, but sadly, it is not an isolated incident. We are seeing an increasing amount of such weaponization by the Biden administration and overzealous officials at the state level.

advocates for freedom of speech and freedom of association are encouraged that the US Supreme Court has reinstated a lawsuit by the National Rifle Association that challengers New York’s effort to punish the organization for its second amendment advocacy. The NRA allege that the head of New York’s Department of Financial Services pressured banks and insurance companies not to do business with it following a shooting at a Florida High School. In January, the organization I represent I head here in Washington DC the Center for Urban renewal in education, we call it cure. We joined with more than 30 other organizations in filing Amicus friend of the court brief with the Supreme Court in defense of the insurance companies freedom of association. We argued that the government cannot censor or punish a speaker or entity like the NRA by punishing third party associations and organizations like the insurance companies who dare to associate with the speaker, in this case, the NRA. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court said that New York official could not use her power to in quotes threaten enforcement actions against entities that the department regulated in quote, To punish or suppress the NRA is gun promotion advocacy. In quote. The US Constitution protects the rights of individuals from government officials who are willing to trample on those rights to accomplish their political goals. This case is an instance of such disregard for the rule of law in the state of New York, but sadly, it is not an isolated incident. We are seeing an increasing amount of such weaponization by the Biden administration and overzealous officials at the state level. In another case argued before the Supreme Court advancing American freedom cure and allied organizations have filed an amicus brief challenging the Biden administration’s pressure campaign against social media companies to silence speech about the COVID pandemic. In early 2021. Government officials communicated with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google regarding COVID-19 post on their platforms, they deem such posts as misinformation and ask that they be throttled or taken down altogether. Some questions are not for the government to decide. We argued, where the government seeks to impose its view of the truth on the people by silence and those who with whom they disagree. It violates the First Amendment, whether it’s silence them directly, or it’s by proxy is what we all argued, the protections of the First Amendment are vital to all Americans and I will be vigilant in protecting our freedom over and over again, if necessary, and particularly as long as the Biden administration is in power here in Washington, DC

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