FOX News Reports on NRA Lawsuit Against ATF, DOJ
July 3, 2023 – Fox News reported today on a lawsuit filed by the National Rifle Association of America against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ("ATF") and others over a rule regulating stabilizing braces for pistols.
As reported, Brewer client the NRA is challenging the controversial “pistol brace rule” that impacts millions of America’s gun owners - subjecting them to fines and penalties.
As the report states, "NRA argues in its complaint that the rule is unconstitutional, as the ATF reverses its long-standing position that pistol braces do not transform pistols into rifles subject to onerous registration and taxation requirements under the National Firearms Act."
"The NRA is pursuing every possible avenue in defense of its law-abiding members and their constitutional freedoms," William A. Brewer III, counsel to the NRA, told Fox News. "Our members should be free of the threat of enforcement of this presumptively unlawful rule. We are confident that we will prevail in obtaining the same relief for them that has already been granted to members of other gun rights groups."
Read more here.
FOX News Reports on NRA Appeal
March 15, 2023 – FOX News reported today on Brewer client, the National Rifle Association of America (NRA), and its appeal of a June 2022 legal decision dismissing the Association’s First Amendment and Equal Protection Clause counterclaims against New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The article, “NRA digs in for legal fight against woke prosecutor over alleged ‘roadmap’ of abuse,” observes that the NYAG filed a dissolution lawsuit against the NRA in August 2020, following her campaign declarations in 2018 that she would investigate the NRA if she was elected. She had described the NRA as a “criminal enterprise” and “terrorist organization.” The NYAG assumed public office and, exactly as she promised her supporters, launched a campaign against the NRA in April 2019, and, approximately a year later, filed a well-publicized lawsuit against the NRA – billed by her as the suit to dissolve the NRA. The NRA filed counterclaims in July 2021, and supplemented its filing in April 2022.
The NRA alleged that James’s campaign to shut down the NRA was motivated by a desire to silence its pro-Second Amendment advocacy. On June 10, 2022, the New York Supreme Court dismissed the counterclaims without allowing discovery. Citing cases arising in the criminal context, the Court contended that the NRA was required to show that the NYAG had no probable cause to investigate it to state a claim under the First Amendment.
In its appeal, filed in the Appellate Division, First Department, the NRA states that the "lower court’s opinion practically draws a roadmap for how officials can abuse state power to destroy the ability for non-profits to advocate for positions disfavored by the government. An official can run for office with the stated aim of taking adverse action to a silence a disfavored speaker."
Brewer partner William A. Brewer III tells FOX, “The NRA believes the motivation for her [the NYAG]…campaign against the Association is clear: she desired to silence the organization and its Second Amendment advocacy.”