The National Rifle Association filed a lawsuit against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his state’s financial services agency on Friday, accusing them of engaging in a blacklisting scheme against the gun rights group.
In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, the NRA accused Cuomo, the New York State Department of Financial Services, and NYDFS Superintendent Maria Vullo of violating the group’s First Amendment rights.
The NRA is seeking millions of dollars “in damages to redress harms inflicted by the DFS campaign.”
Cuomo, who has made gun safety a top priority, panned the lawsuit as “a futile and desperate attempt to advance its dangerous agenda to sell more guns” and said his administration “won’t be intimidated by frivolous court actions from a group of lobbyists bent on chipping away at common sense gun safety laws that many responsible gun owners actually support.” In a separate statement, Vullo said her department “will not stand down from its mandate to enforce New York law.”
The lawsuit points to a letters sent on April 19 by NYDFS to the CEOs of banks and insurance companies doing business in New York, warning of “reputational risk” posed by dealings with pro-gun organizations.
On that same day, Cuomo sent out a press release in which urged “all insurance companies and banks doing business in New York” to “discontinue[] their arrangements with the NRA.”
Then, in early May, NYDFS slapped a $7 million fine on insurance company Lockton Cos LLC over an NRA-branded insurance program known as “Carry Guard” which it deemed to be unlawfully providing liability insurance to gun owners who may be charged with a crime involving firearms. Chubb Ltd., another insurance company, and its subsidiary Illinois Union Insurance Company, was also fined $1.3 million for underwriting the “Carry Guard” program.
The NRA also accuses NYDFS of engaging in a “campaign of selective prosecution, backroom exhortations, and public threats.”
Both insurance companies that were fined as part of consent orders ceased to do business with the NRA, and afterwards Lloyd’s of London said it was directing insurance underwriters to terminate partnerships with the NRA, according to a press release from the gun rights group.
