The justices agree that regulators crossed a constitutional line by bullying insurance companies.
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.
We say this even though the winner in the case was the NRA, an organization synonymous with constitutionally dubious and socially harmful resistance to gun safety legislation. And yet it is precisely because the NRA’s position on the Second Amendment is repugnant to so many that it was important for the court to protect its rights under the First.
The case arose out of efforts by officials of deep-blue New York state to put indirect pressure on the NRA in the wake of the. Maria Vullo, the former superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, had oversight authority over financial service firms doing business in New York. And she allegedly invoked that power to get some of these firms to shun the NRA.
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,, 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.
The lower court might or might not accept that particular argument. What matters for the future, though, is what a unanimous court did just establish, clearly: The Constitution does not permit state regulators to strong-arm companies into boycotting controversial speakers.Fox News hosts trash Trump conviction, vow political redemption
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