Bloomberg-Paid Writer Horrified That NRA-Supported Groups Can Write Supreme Court Amicus Briefs in Support of Gun Rights

By
Dan Zimmerman
-
67

 

man vintage cartoon horror surprise fear
Shutterstock

An examination of the 49 pro-NRA amicus briefs filed in Bruen, along with court and IRS filings, shows that over the last two decades, the NRA has given financial support to at least 12 of the groups and individuals who lobbied the court on its behalf. That’s nearly a quarter. Though a full accounting is impossible, some recipients collected several million dollars from the NRA during that period and before filing briefs in Bruen. Only one of those 12 briefs disclosed the connection, meaning that neither the justices nor the public were told that 11 of these ostensibly independent voices owed their livelihoods in part to the NRA, the interest group behind the case. In his majority opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas adopted many of the arguments and conclusions offered in the amicus briefs filed by these NRA-funded allies, including Hardy’s.

The amicus briefs in Bruen provide a window into the NRA’s long standing legal strategy — how the organization has spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the past few decades constructing an advocacy network of lawyers and institutions capable of identifying, supporting and advancing cases likely to weaken gun restrictions.

But the briefs also demonstrate the limits of current Supreme Court ethics rules. The court’s guidelines surrounding financial disclosure for amicus filers are ambiguous and can be read so narrowly that experts say it’s easy for organizations to skirt them. Without a stronger rule, warn advocates pushing to bolster court ethics guidelines, groups like the NRA are essentially able to lobby the Supreme Court while keeping their role hidden.

 

 

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

67 COMMENTS

  1. Can you hear it?

    That’s the sound of the world’s tiniest violin, playing a sad, sad, song…

    *snicker* 😉

    • How many opposing amicus briefs had connections to Soros or Bloomberg funded organizations and how many of those disclosed them?

      • Quick Google of Will Van Sant – writes for The Trace, founded and funded by Bloomberg.

        What are the chances they submitted an amicus brief on the side of New York City?

      • Never mind another pompous gun hating democRat pointing fingers at the N-R-A. Perhaps the bloomberg employee could file a brief that explains in detail the hypocrisy surrounding mini mike’s 6 armed security guards?

      • In their minds, everything they do is fine because they are “good” and everything the NRA or anyone aligned with gun rights does is bad because they are “evil.” They don’t see this as a double standard at all – they think everyone who disagrees with them should be silenced and marginalized at a minimum. I have, unfortunately, broad experience with this kind of mindset as it is pervasive in some circles. The more savvy spokespeople won’t say it out loud because of the logical inconsistencies but, their true feelings are, “Your voice should not be heard because I hate you.”

        • I’m pretty sure they’ve given up entirely any allusion to being the “good” guys. From what I’ve seen they’ve embraced fully their role as villains and any of them still pretending to be “good” is done only as another villainous lie.

          Nothing they do is “good” for anyone but themselves.

        • In their mind, lying to an “enemy” is not only allowed but is standard operating procedure.

        • i dont think its been like that forever, i cant believe america has been that nasty forever, but its now 100%

          ill add something more- “Your voice should not be heard, I hate you, and I want you and everyone like you to die.”

          anyone who still believes in good-faith arguments is a damn fool.

      • 35 briefs filed in support of the respondent. Of the three largest such groups-Brady United, Giffords and Everytown for Gun Safety only Everytown has identifiable financial connections to other entities that filed amicus briefs opposing the NRA which most likely supported a lot more than 25% of the anti-gunners.

  2. I really want to see Bloomberg lead the way and outline how many studies and other forms of advocacy that have conflicts of interest filing Amicus Briefs and otherwise influencing the media.

    • The very fact that they didn’t disclose that The Trace was funded by Michael Bloomberg who’s a gun control advocate has palpable irony.

  3. “…that over the last two decades, the NRA has given financial support to at least 12 of the groups and individuals who lobbied the court on its behalf.”

    … that over the last two decades, Bloomberg has given financial support to ALL of the groups and individuals who lobbied ANY court on behalf of his and their anti-gun agenda.

  4. It’s “Politico”. They are a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bloomberg ministry of propaganda. What did you expect? I did go to the article but, as usual, there is no provision for response or comments.

  5. “… into the NRA’s long standing legal strategy — how the organization has spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the past few decades constructing an advocacy network of lawyers and institutions capable of identifying, supporting and advancing cases likely to weaken gun restrictions.”

    … into Bloombergs long standing legal strategy — how anti-gun organizations have spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the past few decades constructing an advocacy network of lawyers and institutions capable of identifying, supporting and advancing cases likely to violate the constitution, individual rights, and impose a tyranny concept to strengthen anti-gun restrictions in courts friendly to them or using a contrived balancing test created to give an appearance of fairness while really being created to satisfy the anti-gun agenda.

    • “… into Bloombergs long standing legal strategy”

      This, on its own, wouldn’t be such an insurmountable issue. However, along with the “Bloomberg” and Soros money, these antigun zealots can add even more massive amounts of taxpayer money being used by the blue state/city leaders, as well as millions more in free antigun advocacy by the ever-complicit woke MSM.

      The first step should be the taxpayers firing their elected jerks up for reelection in the November election cycle. Then begin work on the MSM advertisers, as well as a return to reigning in the various forms of communist radio/TV ‘supported” not so much by “viewers like you”, but by state and federal tax dollars.

  6. I’m trying to imagine what pearl clutching sounds like in real life and right now I have a good idea of I imagine it sounds like.

    • Good one,, but I wonder, Is it the sound of Pearl Clutching, or Sphincter Collapse as the Author schit himself trying to hide the fact that Antigunners do the exact same thing?

      • trying to hide the fact that Antigunners do the exact same thing?

        If you don’t believe something exists it can’t bother you. It probably never occurred to this one-dimensional idiot that anyone from the other side of the argument would even engage in such activity and if they did it’s okay because THEY are on the right side.

  7. Window into mind of anti-gun loons, they think gun owners are all knuckle-draging morons incapable of putting 13 words together to form a sentence. They believe that only smart people like them should be “allowed” to even appear in the court but it’s perfectly fine if Little Mikey Bloomberg funds the campaigns and organization the run the PAC to elect corrupt District Attorneys. FMB FJB

  8. People out there actually think that the NRA ‘makes law’. I’ve personally talked with a few of them. These people believe that there is no equivalency between the right to free speech and the right to own guns. To them, the second amendment is such in name only and is not actually part of the Constitution. It’s just what people call it and it more often not even refered to that way.

    Part of the misunderstanding here is that since the way the NRA works is in itself misunderstood (largely due to the way the NRA works), people don’t realize that there are elected ‘law makers’ that just simply ARE also members of the NRA (usually on the Republican side). This is either ignored or is completely overlooked.

    It is NOT that the Republicans placate to the NRA and do their bidding as many on the left would have the world believe. THAT is a complete distortion of reality (like all the other lies of the left). It’s that the Second Amendment actually IS part of the American Constitution and the whole point of efforts made by the NRA to to protect it (by lobbying mainly through the Republican party). There are plenty of groups on the left that do the EXACT SAME THING but on the opposing side.

    The NRA does NOT make law. They NEVER have. But there are people in government that actually DO make law that are also NRA members. Just like there ARE those in government that make law that are anti-semite Jew hating Communist Nazi’s hell bent on destroying everything that is the USA.

    • Prndll – I think about all that you missed was how many of them ‘think’ that the NRA sells guns 🙁
      ‘cuz the lame stream media and the rest of the antis tell them they do.

  9. Well the diminutive Bloomie mused about buying his way into heaven. Not how it works Schlomo!

  11. Huh. And all I hear is how the NRA spends all of its money on LaPierre’s girlfriend and how it doesn’t really participate in fighting anti-gun legislation but takes credit for the work of other organizations.

    Nikki Fried (describes her brain state), (D) running for governor, has a TV ad here saying that she hasn’t taken any donations from the NRA and is billing herself as the “anti-NRA” candidate. She says that DeSantis opposes background checks.

    • Does he oppose ‘background checks’? or does he oppose Universal Background Checks?

      Not only is a Background Check a simply go/no-go through NICS (which is part of the process and does not require his involvement), it also does NOT actually check ones background at all (never has). The problem with UBC’s is that there is absolutely NO way to enforce it while at the same time creating illegal registries. So I’m not sure why DeSantis would support and UBC.

      As for Nikki Fried, running as a Democrat, of course she will publicly state her opposition to the NRA (or anything else related to the 2A). She is running as a Democrat. As for her not taking NRA donations…well, Trump didn’t take any paychecks as president so I’m asking her ‘what’s your point?’.

      • “Does he oppose ‘background checks’? or does he oppose Universal Background Checks?”

        Good question, prndll. I just assume that she, being a (D), is lying and I forego the background research. I’m usually correct.

        • Just ran across this on Don Surber’s page:

          Nikki Fried, who’s running for governor against Ron DeSantis, held a virtual press event with a couple of health experts. At the end, she asked to field questions from members of the media. None of them showed up. pic.twitter.com/T9rmENo3R1

          — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 4, 2022

    • “And all I hear is how the NRA spends all of its money on LaPierre’s girlfriend and how it doesn’t really participate in fighting anti-gun legislation but takes credit for the work of other organizations.”

      That’s because you, and a lot of purist 2A keyboard warriors are generally listening to the wrong voices. Without listing them here, I can come up with 15 cases from national to state level that NRA is involved in right now, not counting the NY AG v NRA. I’m not talking about suits filed, these are active lawsuits, in progress. Go find an ILA report. That’s where the real money and time are spent.

      • The antiNRA trolls are CNN/MSM shills. CNN/MSM/demtards will say/do ANYTHING to reduce the NRA.

  12. Every day, I wonder how a person can believe he or she has a right to free speech while others do not. How people of one persuasion have a right to due process, but others do not. How it is OK to use armed force against those with whom they disagree, but their opponents have no right of self defense. How the state should use its power to create poverty, shortages of necessities, and ruin small businesses to pursue an ideology.

    I connot comprehend how people can choose such evil and believe they are clothed in righteousness. It seems a sickness, a morbidity. It seems demonic.

    • They’re almost religious in their fervor. Perhaps it’s a substitute for their lack of “religion.”

      BTW, is Satanism a “religion?” If yes, then we may have found the answer.

      • L3ftism is more like an apocalypse cult.

        They don’t lift people up. They drag everybody down. They want to massacre everyone who is not them, and then more massacres for the scapegoats of the failures of the system. Their whole belief is built on lies and self-delusion.

    • “It seems a sickness, a morbidity. It seems demonic.”

      It is all those things. It is rabid, insane, self-destructive, self-deception of the highest order.

      I suspect you know these, so to the general readership, read the story of Elijah confronting the prophets of Baal found in 1 Kings 18:1-40. Then read some Solzhenitsyn. Evil has no reason and no bottom.

      • ah, yes- fire. the biblical cleanser.
        “a hot stake is better than a cold chop.”
        and then the rains came.

  13. I quit supporting the NRA a while ago. Yes they’re the biggest name in the game, but they’re also not nearly as aggressive as I’d like for their size. I’d much rather support smaller groups, especially local ones

    • Filing lawsuits that will not go anywhere in the court system is hardly being aggressive.

    • Should’ve had one this time.

      I love my blades, and I’m well trained and damned good with them, esp. 八斬刀 & Barong’s. But, Gun > blade every time unless inside Tueller distances, and not already drawn down on.

      Last returns true inside blade arc distance only.

  15. Folks have said all along, first they take away the 2nd Amendment, next it’ll be the 1st.

    Could anything be more clear after reading this article?

  16. From aggregated police and news wire reports…

    Yesterday, 6 August 2022, there were 4,637 violent criminal home invasions nation wide while residents were home.

    52% of the residents were armed with firearms and used them to repell the criminals either by brandishing (most) or by firing. 2% of those 52% armed residents suffered serious injury or were killed.

    48% were not armed with firearms and complied with the criminal demands, 76% of this 48% suffered serious injury or were killed.

    • Where do you find that information? I’d like to have it handy, for discussions on other forums.

      • My wife is a free lance journalist and has a journslist friend in MSM that gives her access to their aggregate feed where all this stuff daily flows. She sets up searches for me in that.

  17. Bloomberg and Soros need to stand trial just like Alex Jones. Together, they have many billions that can be distributed to victims, not mere millions. I’m not even much of a victim – the real victims are located in progressive/liberal states where officials use the Bill of Rights to wipe their bums.

  18. This is a two-part analysis:

    1. In the first instance, I have NO PROBLEM with disclosure and transparency. Requiring parties, attorneys, amici, and even justices, to disclose their financial interests that might give rise to bias, seems ENTIRELY fair. So long as it is universally applied.

    2. The author of this piece of dreck works for a Bloomberg-funded website.

    Who is the pot, and who is the kettle????

  21. The leftists of the anti-gun legacy media will attack anyone and everyone who frustrates their aim and will finger point at the framers of the Constitution, SCOTUS, all of the gun rights organizations, and all of us who have donated to support ongoing attempts to block and roll back their disarmament goals.

  23. If Bloomberg’s army didn’t lie so much, being horrified would be unnecessary. For example, Democrats believe 57 percent of violent crimes involve firearms while Republicans believe 37 percent involve firearms. Combined, voters believe 46 percent of America’s violent crimes involve firearms, six times the real number which is less than eight percent.

    His army splashes the headlines with the horrible carnage caused by the so-called assault rifle. Fact is rifles of “all types” are used in fewer murders than are hands and feet. Further, murders and assaults involving firearms declined by more than half between 1990 and 2020 while guns in circulation doubled and many states relaxed their laws.

    Regarding mass shootings at schools, since 1999, seven people per year have been killed. Thus, the chances that a student or teacher are killed is one in 1.3 million. Odd that they never mention that number is about half the number killed each year inside school transportation vehicles.

    I could go on, but this information was paraphrased from “America’s 1st Freedom” article by Charles C.W. Cooke and published by the NRA. Information cited as authorities include McLaughlin and Associates, Department of Justice, National Instant Criminal Background Check System and of course Dr. John Lott himself.

  24. The left hopes for another Miller style victory, no defense offered in the court.
    Nobody even filed a brief in Miller and it was not the walkover the feds wanted.
    The differences this time the left wants no defense permitted.

  25. Just imagine what the NRA (Negotiating Rights Away) could have done if they didn’t have to fund LaPierre’s exorbitant lifestyle – and actually fought for gun rights instead of making concessions.

Comments are closed.