In Vullo, the Court considered whether the New York Superintendent of the Department of Financial Services violated the NRA’s First Amendment rights when she launched a campaign to coerce private actors “to punish or suppress the NRA’s gun-promotion activities.” MariaVullo and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo met with executives at insurance companies doing business with the NRA to threaten the companies with adverse regulatory proceedings unless they ceased their relationships with the NRA. 

In a unanimous opinion, Justice Sotomayor ruled that this campaign, if proven true at trial, was illegal. “Vullo was free to criticize the NRA and pursue the conceded violations of New York insurance law,” the Court held. “She could not wield her power, however, to threaten enforcement actions against DFS-regulated entities in order to punish or suppress the NRA’s gun-promotion advocacy.” 

The case offers direct parallels to the censorship of Covid-related information. The Biden White House repeatedly worked through third parties – including Meta, Twitter, and Google – to censor disfavored information.