Article from Reason by Declan McCullagh.
The official view of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) remains that the Second Amendment protects a “collective right rather than an individual right.” But the organization nevertheless is helping the National Rifle Association (NRA) fend off extralegal attempts by New York state officials to put it out of business.
In a brief filed in federal court today, the ACLU argues that New York’s strong-arm efforts to compel banks and insurance companies to ditch the NRA as a customer represent a glaring violation of the First Amendment.
“Although public officials are free to express their opinions and may condemn viewpoints or groups they view as inimical to public welfare, they cannot abuse their regulatory authority to retaliate against disfavored advocacy organizations and to impose burdens on those organizations’ ability to conduct lawful business,” the ACLU says.
The ACLU’s amicus brief never says the group agrees with the NRA’s positions on firearms. Instead, the group invokes a long series of First Amendment cases to argue that the regulators should not use their power in office to punish political enemies.
Read the entire article at Reason.
Image Credit: By KAZ Vorpal (Flickr: Declaration of Independence, with Firearm) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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Just thinking out loud, these “choke point” tactics can spread among the thousands of scurrilous politicians to inhibit just about any endeavor. Explosives and knives are obvious but oppression cannot be oppressed. Lawyers who defend those who use guns, knives, grenades and whatnot might become “choke points” along with services hired by such lawyers. I could go on. Such things, fit nicely into the fundamental transformation as do many indirectly connected activities. This tactic could trigger renegade underground groups and hasten the next revolution.
When big brother starts to pick and choose who can get a bank account and who cannot we really will need the second amendment. Most of the time the ACLU is pretty far out in “left” field, but apparently there is also an amount of integrity and courage of convictions in the ACLU. God bless them for standing up for what they feel is right.
It is the NY State officials who should be put out of business — the corrupt governor, NYC mayor right along with the 2 worthless senators.
With such “Friends” does one need “Enemies”?
They want donations which they are low in since they support the “left” mostly.