Los Angeles Ordered To Pay NRA $150,000 Over First Amendment Ordinance Violation

[Elderberry]

California Globe by Evan Symon, October 2, 2020

On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson ordered the City of Los Angeles to pay the National Rifle Association (NRA) close to $150,000 over a 2019 ruling on a city ordinance aimed at negatively affecting some city workers who are members of the NRA.

City Ordinance 186000 specifically requires that any prospective contractor with the city must disclose all contracts or sponsorships with the NRA. The ordinance noted several mass shootings, including the Sandy Hook School shooting in 2012, the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay shooting of 2017, and both the Pittsburgh and Thousand Oaks shootings of 2018, and tried to tie them to the NRA by showing how their support for less strict gun laws led to those incidents. The ordinance also noted how many of those cities would later enact greater gun control methods.

It concluded that since Los Angeles enacted ordinances and position in favor of greater gun control, it would make sure city funds wouldn’t go those with ties to the organization and would halt city contractor business with NRA members and supporters.

“The City’s residents deserve to know if the City’s public funds are spent on contractors that have contractual or sponsorship ties with the NRA,” read the ordinance. “Public funds to such contractors undermines the City’s efforts to legislate and promote gun safety.”

The NRA immediately sued Los Angeles after the ordinance went into effect in April 2019. While the city, as well as ordinance sponsors Mayor Eric Garcetti and Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, had expected to win, the NRA made a hard case for the ordinance being in violation of First Amendment rights, mainly freedom of speech.

More: https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/los-angeles-ordered-to-pay-nra-150000-over-first-amendment-ordinance-violation/

[SZonian]

Unless and until the pieces of effing garbage who initiate these suits have to pay out of their own pockets, these rulings are truly meaningless as the taxpayers are on the hook, although "we all deserve the government we deserve" due to our choices.

But in a real world, that piece of effing garbage Garcetti would be opening his own wallet...