US Supreme Court boosts NRA in free speech fight with New York official

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday revived the National Rifle Association's lawsuit accusing a New York state official of coercing banks and insurers to avoid doing business with the gun rights group in a ruling that warned public officials against wielding their power to punish speech they dislike.

The justices, in a 9-0 decision authored by liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, threw out a lower court's ruling that had dismissed the NRA's 2018 lawsuit against Maria Vullo, a former superintendent of New York's Department of Financial Services.

At issue is whether Vullo wielded her regulatory power to coerce New York financial institutions into cutting ties with the NRA in violation of protections under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment against government restrictions on free speech.

The NRA accused Vullo of unlawfully retaliating against it for its constitutionally protected gun rights advocacy by targeting it with an "implicit censorship regime" following a 2018 mass shooting in which 17 people were killed at a high school in Parkland, Florida.