The Second Amendment Foundation is honoring Houston, Texas attorney Chad Flores as the this year’s “Defender of the Constitution” award winner for his representation of Defense Distributed in its First Amendment legal action against New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.
Defense Distributed has been fighting efforts to prevent its publication of information regarding the use of 3D printers in the construction of so-called “ghost guns.” SAF is supporting this case, which has always been considered a freedom of speech issue.
Flores is an attorney with Beck Redden in Houston. When a federal judge in Seattle ruled the Trump administration erred when it reversed an earlier decision to block Defense Distributed from publishing information about the production of such guns on the Internet, Flores argued in a prepared statement, “The First Amendment protects the freedom of speech from all abridgment, including indirect censorship efforts like this one. And states aren’t allowed to commandeer the federal government to do their unconstitutional bidding, even under the guise of statutory technicalities.”
“We’ve admired Chad Flores and his work on this important case from the outset,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “This case isn’t about guns or the Second Amendment at all. It’s about the First Amendment right of free speech, and the public’s right to know and have access to such information.
“Flores is representing SAF and Defense Distributed in a federal lawsuit against the State Department and several officials, along with Grewal,” Gottlieb continued. “The lawsuit challenges the abridgment of speech by the State Department, and Grewal’s continuing efforts to prevent Defense Distributed from exercising its First Amendment right to talk about the Second Amendment.”
Prior to joining Beck Redden, Flores clerked at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and for the Supreme Court of Texas, according to a short biography.
