IN FEBRUARY 2018 a teenager shot and killed down 14 high-schoolers in Parkland, Florida. As the country reeled, a New York government official sought to weaken America’s gun lobby. Maria Vullo, head of the state’s financial-services regulator, told Lloyd’s of London that if it stopped providing insurance to the National Rifle Association (NRA) the government wouldn’t investigate it for regulatory infractions. Lloyd’s took the deal and the NRA sued, arguing that choking its business for political reasons violated the First Amendment. Last year the Supreme Court agreed unanimously. “Government officials cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavours,” Justice Sonya Sotomayor wrote for the justices in NRA v Vullo.