Legal scholars told the Washington Free Beacon it was hard to see the massive gun-rights group being dissolved over James’s investigation into its finances. Cato Institute legal fellow Walter Olson said the case presented amounted to a Democrat attempting to shut down a key political opponent.

“Closing down opposition organizations, traditionally, was something that you heard of going on in strongman regimes and you did not have going on in the United States,” Olson said. “And that’s what she’s asking for is for: a major opposition organization to be closed down.”…

The NRA has found unlikely allies in the aftermath of James’s announcement. Liberal commentators and academics such as Washington Post editor Ruth Marcus, Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman, and University of Minnesota law professor Alan Z. Rozenshtein have written op-eds in recent days siding with the view that James’s dissolution effort is alarming. The trio made their strong distaste for the NRA and its viewpoint clear in their writing but warned the attempt to dismantle it has “disturbing implications,” as Marcus said, and “threatens democratic norms,” according to Rozenshtein.

Olson said he has “been heartened that the center is holding” with “a number of different liberal pro-gun control writers saying, ‘let’s get an appropriate amount of justice but we can’t just ask for it to be closed down.'”