The ACLU Says a New York Official Violated the NRA’s First Amendment Rights. They Still Can’t Sue Her.
The national debate over qualified immunity—the legal doctrine that can make it difficult to sue government officials for constitutional violations—has largely focused on police misconduct.
But it also broadly applies to state and local government employees. A recent federal court ruling is a reminder of that, uniting two unlikely bedfellows: the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The legal odyssey stretches back to 2017, when the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) found that Carry Guard—a self-defense insurance program endorsed by the NRA and underwritten by insurance companies—had violated state insurance law by offering coverage for criminally negligent acts with a firearm that killed or injured another person. Those insurance companies ultimately paid civil penalties.
The 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which occurred a few months after that probe, subsequently prompted Maria Vullo—then a superintendent at DFS—to weaponize her position to cripple the gun organization’s advocacy and hamstring its access to insurance companies and financial institutions, the NRA alleges.
Specifically, the group says Vullo expressed in private meetings with insurance providers that she would selectively apply enforcement actions to those who insisted on doing business with the NRA. She also issued two m
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