By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre goes on offense against the San Francisco Board of Supervisors with a federal lawsuit. (Dave Workman)
The National Rifle Association of America has filed a federal lawsuit against the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and the city and county of San Francisco, claiming that a resolution adopted by the Board violates the organization’s First Amendment rights, and amounts to blacklisting.
The Board last month approved unanimously the resolution declaring the NRA to be a “domestic terrorist organization.” It encouraged “other cities, states, and the federal government to do the same.” The resolution was authored by Supervisor Catherine Stefani, described in the NRA lawsuit as an individual “whose public presence centers around anti-Second Amendment advocacy.”
“Such advocacy is Stefani’s constitutional right,” the lawsuit acknowledges, “but just as the Constitution entitles her to criticize and debate the NRA, it forbids her from wielding the powers of her office to suppress or retaliate against the NRA’s exercise of its First Amendment rights.”
The lawsuit may be read here.
In a statement on Twitter, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre was blunt:
“This lawsuit comes with a message to those who would attack the NRA: We will never stop fighting for our law-abiding members and their constitutional freedoms. Some politicians forget that all 5 million of us in the NRA stand for freedom and that we believe it is a cause worth fighting for. We will always confront illegal and discriminatory practices against our organization and the millions of members we serve.”
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco. In the lawsuit, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, NRA contends that the Board of Supervisors have adopted a policy of blacklisting “anyone linked to the NRA.” The NRA also contends that the resolution “violates the organization’s first and fourteenth amendment rights,” the newspaper said.
KTVU News quoted NRA attorney William A. Brewer III, who observed, “This action is an assault on all advocacy organizations across the country…There can be no place in our society for this manner of behavior by government officials. Fortunately, the NRA, like all U.S. citizens, is protected by the First Amendment.”
After the Board of Supervisors adopted its resolution, NRA received some surprising support from newspaper columns on both coasts. The Los Angeles Times’ senior editorial writer Michael McGough noted, “it’s not the business of a county board of supervisors to designate terror organizations.” He said the anti-NRA resolution “is particularly inappropriate because it is couched in language that could leave the impression that its declaration about a national issue actually has legal force.”
Washington Post columnist Henry Olsen observed, “Liberals often wonder where conservatives get the notion that they are hated and despised,” Olsen writes. “Wonder no more: Just look at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ resolution labeling the National Rifle Association a “domestic terrorist organization.”
Vero Beach, Fla., Mayor Val Zudans sent a bristling letter to the San Francisco Board, in which he observed, “Your elitist declaration has underestimated the will and character of honest Americans. Americans consider your resolution to be part of the same garbage pile that San Francisco has become under your malfeasance.”
Zudans, who took office earlier this year, added, “Governments who coerce and intimidate their citizens are the true terrorists. You are the true enemy of liberty enabling addiction, homelessness, and harboring illegal violent criminals. Instead of calling Americans terrorists, look in the mirror and get your own house in order first.”
Zudans made it clear in his letter that he is a Life Member of the NRA and holds a Florida Concealed Carry License.
The 23-page lawsuit seeks damages, legal fees and court costs. It seeks to permanently enjoin the defendants from any enforcement of, or from taking any official action pursuant to the Board of Supervisors resolution.
