Surprise, surprise, surprise! Not only did the Supreme Court resuscitate the National Rifle Association’s lawsuit against the state of New York, they did so unanimously.
And guess who wrote the opinion that directed the lower court to take up the NRA’s First Amendment claim in NRA v Vullo? Justice Sonia Sotomayor, last seen lamenting her Kleenex consumption in a conservative-dominated SCOTUS:
Six decades ago, this Court held that a government entity’s “threat of invoking legal sanctions and other means of coercion” against a third party “to achieve the suppression” of disfavored speech violates the First Amendment. Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan, 372 U. S. 58, 67 (1963). Today, the Court reaffirms what it said then: Government officials cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors. Petitioner National Rifle…
