BATON ROUGE, LA - Attorney General Jeff Landry has added
Louisiana to a coalition of 16 states that have filed an amicus brief
supporting the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) lawsuit against New York
Attorney General Letitia James.
The NRA’s lawsuit seeks to block James’s politically motivated
attempt in a separate lawsuit to dissolve the NRA, which is the country’s
oldest civil rights organization and leading Second Amendment advocacy
organization.
“The New York Attorney General’s actions threaten the civil
rights of five million NRA members - including citizens of Louisiana,” said
Attorney General Landry. “I am proud to fight back against this partisan attack
on the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens who
respect the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
In August, James filed a lawsuit in New York state court seeking
to dissolve the NRA. Separately, the District of Columbia Attorney General Karl
Racine filed an action against the non-profit organization NRA Foundation; but
the DC lawsuit tellingly did not seek dissolution.
Subsequently, the NRA responded by suing James in New York
federal court - claiming that her dissolution lawsuit violated the First
Amendment by seeking to punish the NRA for its constitutionally protected
Second Amendment advocacy.
The amicus brief filed by Landry and his colleagues supports the
NRA’s federal-court lawsuit. Landry and the other 15 state attorneys general
argue that James sought dissolution because she does not like the NRA’s political
advocacy, its members’ political views, and the organization’s defense of a
fundamental constitutional right.
The brief argues that New York’s lawsuit violates the First
Amendment because it was designed to retaliate against the NRA and its members
for these constitutionally-protected activities.
The brief makes clear that state regulations of non-profits and
charitable organizations are essential to protecting the public. But it also
criticizes New York’s politically motivated enforcement of its regulations.
Such regulations should never be used to attack a government official’s
political opponents.
Louisiana is joined in the amicus brief by Arkansas, Alaska,
Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South
Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.