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Factual Disputes Emerge In N.R.A. First Amendment Case

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The usually sharply divided United States Supreme Court came together earlier this year to to decide unanimously in favor of the National Rifle Association, finding that the organization could pursue its claim that a New York State regulator had infringed on its First Amendment rights when she sought to discourage insurers and banks from doing business with the gun group after the 2018 school massacre in Parkland, Fla. The N.R.A. called it a “a landmark victory.”   But now, two women said to be the primary participants in a secret meeting described in the N.R.A. complaint, and pivotal to the Supreme Court ruling, say it never took place, the New York Times reports.


The Supreme Court ruling drew on an account of the supposed secret meeting, detailed in the N.R.A.’s lawsuit, between Maria T. Vullo, New York’s top financial regulator at the time, and Inga Beale, then chief executive of Lloyd’s of London, as well as a Lloyd’s lawyer. But in interviews and emails, both  Vullo and Beale told The New York Times that they first met several months after the purported meeting, and then only at an industry awards luncheon where they exchanged pleasantries. Vullo, whose motion to dismiss the N.R.A.’s lawsuit propelled the case to the high court, said in an interview that her life had been roiled by threats inspired by the gun group’s narrative. “I’ve had to deal with six years of a litigation of lies,” she said. “I’ve had to deal with a Supreme Court decision that is premised on those lies and all of the public discussion of it, including statements that the N.R.A. and its counsel have made reinforcing those lies and fund-raising off of those lies. And that has affected my reputation.” The N.R.A. stands by its assertions. 

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