Florida Court Upholds Privacy Rights
of NRA Members
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"...We have never and will never release our
membership information. We will not release ten names nor one
single name, period..." |
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-- NRA Past President/USF Founder Marion P. Hammer |
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Marion Hammer |
NRA and Unified
Sportsmen of Florida (USF), an NRA affiliate led
by NRA Past President Marion P. Hammer, won a significant court
victory on December 27, 2000, when the District Court of Appeal
of Florida, Third District, ruled that the identity of members of
these organizations need not be disclosed in a lawsuit.
This
issue arose when the City of South Miami, in response to a suit
filed against it by NRA and USF, demanded a list of the names and
addresses of all NRA and USF members who live in the City. The
original NRA/USF suit, which is still pending, was filed because
the City had enacted a law mandating trigger locks be used to
secure all firearms - a violation of Florida's statewide preemption
law, and a conflict with state law that allows firearms to be
secured by many other methods.
Speaking on behalf of both NRA and USF, Hammer called the City's
demand for the names of members "nothing more than harassment."
The City even went so far as to demand a list of members who own
firearms, along with information on how they store their
firearms.
Hammer went on to call the City's effort "nothing less
than a devious political attempt to try to force us to give up
our constitutional right to privacy in order to exercise our
right to seek relief in the courts - from the illegal actions of
local anti-gun politicians."
When a lower court ordered that NRA and USF disclose at least 10
members, Hammer stated, "We have never and will never release our
membership information. We will not release ten names nor one
single name, period." In its reversal of the lower court's
ruling, the Court of Appeals held: "We are not convinced that
simply because the Associations filed the action as plaintiffs,
they have waived their privacy rights concerning the members'
names. The discovery of the names should not have been ordered.
We therefore quash the order."
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