A federal judge Wednesday temporarily blocked a new Los Angeles law that requires prospective city contractors to disclose any ties with the National Rifle Association.
U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson granted the injunction at the request of the NRA, which sued the city of Los Angeles last summer, claiming the law violates the right to free speech and equal protection.
The NRA also called the ordinance “modern-day McCarthyism,” claiming that NRA members would have to choose between contracting with the city or keeping their memberships.
The injunction stops enforcement of the law as the case goes forward. The judge removed Mayor Eric Garcetti and the city clerk as defendants in the lawsuit but didn’t entirely throw it out.
The city may appeal the ruling or the NRA could request that the injunction be made permanent.
The law, which went into effect in April, says that contracting with NRA-linked businesses "undermines the city's efforts to legislate and promote gun safety and would lead "to more pro-gun advocacy, laxer gun laws, and inevitably more mass shootings," according to Wilson.
"Even if this chain of logic was supported by fact, the city is not permitted to restrict political speech as a means of achieving its goal of safer cities," he ruled.
The NRA dropped a lawsuit against San Francisco last month after the board of supervisors declared it a “domestic terrorist organization.”
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