The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously decided that the National Rifle Association (NRA) ‘plausibly alleged’ that the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) violated the group’s First Amendment rights by blacklisting the group.

In a unanimous decision written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the high court ‘holds that the NRA plausibly alleged that [then-New York State Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria T.] Vullo violated the First Amendment by coercing DFS-regulated entities to terminate their business relationships with the NRA in order to punish or suppress the NRA’s advocacy.’ 

‘The judgment of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is vacated, and the case remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion,’ the court said, allowing the NRA to continue to argue its case, overruling the second circuit’s dismissal of the suit.

The case stems from a lawsuit filed by the NRA in 2018 which questioned whether a government regulator threatens regulated entities with adverse regulatory actions if they do business with a controversial speaker, allegedly because of the government’s own hostility to the speaker’s viewpoint, violates the First Amendment.

‘Six decades ago, this Court held that a government entity’s ‘threat of invoking legal sanctions and other means of coercion’ against a third party ‘to achieve the suppression’ of disfavored speech violates the First Amendment,’ the opinion states. 

‘Today, the Court reaffirms what it said then: Government officials cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors,’ it said. ‘Petitioner National Rifle Association (NRA) plausibly alleges that respondent Maria Vullo did just that.’

The NRA sued Vullo, who — at the order of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo — allegedly blacklisted the NRA, effectively forcing banks and insurers to cut ties with the group.

She sent ‘guidance letters’ in 2018 to banks and insurance companies encouraging them to sever ties with the NRA and other pro-Second Amendment organizations, citing reputational risks. The guidance letters were issued shortly after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 students and staff.

The lawsuit alleged that Vullo made ‘backroom threats’ against regulated firms, accompanied by offers of leniency on unrelated infractions if regulated entities would agree to blacklist the NRA.

‘As superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, Vullo allegedly pressured regulated entities to help her stifle the NRA’s pro-gun advocacy by threatening enforcement actions against those entities that refused to disassociate from the NRA and other gun-promotion advocacy groups,’ the court’s Thursday opinion states. 

‘Those allegations, if true, state a First Amendment claim.’

The Supreme Court in November agreed to hear National Rifle Association of America v. Vullo, after a federal appeals court in 2022 dismissed the group’s lawsuit, arguing Vullo’s actions were reasonable. 

On Thursday, the high court said the Second Circuit is vacated, and the case remanded for further proceedings consistent with its opinion, meaning the gun rights group can continue to argue its case in lower courts. 

The NRA garnered support from unlikely allies in the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a group that ideologically opposes the NRA but said it is ‘proud’ to defend the gun group’s ‘right to speak.’

‘Today’s decision confirms that government officials have no business using their regulatory authority to blacklist disfavored political groups,’  said David Cole, the ACLU’s national legal director, who argued the case for the NRA.  ‘

The New York state officials involved here, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his chief financial regulator, Maria Vullo, were clear that they sought to punish the NRA because they disagreed with its gun rights advocacy. The Supreme Court has now made crystal clear that this action is unconstitutional.’

Neal Katyal of Hogan Lovells, counsel for Vullo, said, ‘We are disappointed by the Court’s decision. As the Court’s decision makes clear, because of the posture of this case, this ruling required the Court to treat the NRA’s untested allegations as true even though these allegations have no evidentiary merit.’ 

‘This case will now go back to the Second Circuit, which threw out the lawsuit on qualified immunity grounds before. The Supreme Court did not address the qualified immunity decision of the Second Circuit, and we are confident Ms. Vullo’s claim of qualified immunity will be reaffirmed,’ Katyal said, adding that, ‘Ms. Vullo did not violate anyone’s First Amendment rights.’

Fox News’ Shannon Bream and Bill Mears and Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report. 

Analysis of Russian ballistic missiles has confirmed North Korean-produced debris throughout Ukraine, according to an unclassified report released by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). 

The DIA has used open-source imagery to confirm debris found after the Jan. 2 attack on Kharkiv, the second-biggest city in Ukraine and the biggest city near the border with Russia, derived from a DPRK short-range missile.

The report demonstrates how the relationship between North Korea and Russia continues to evolve and strengthen as it seeks to improve public understanding of this vital national security issue. Russia has fired as many as 50 North Korean-made short range ballistic missiles, but as many as half of the missiles lost their programmed trajectories and exploded in the air, according to Reuters. 

Russia and North Korea continue to deny any arms deal has occurred, as it would violate an arms embargo on North Korea. 

The DIA report used photos that indicate the missile debris in Ukraine has the same forward motor section and aft motor sections as those shown in images by the North Korean press agency of its leader Kim Jong Un touring a missile factory and reviewing recently-completed missiles. 

The analysis also compared the cable tray – used to run wires from the front of the missile to the tail section – and the handling ring connectors, which are used to lift and move the missile. 

The report’s publication coincides with another North Korean missile salvo demonstration, which fired at least 10 short-range ballistic missiles off the country’s east coast on Thursday, according South Korea’s military. The missiles appeared to land outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone. 

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said all missiles fired in the recent salvo appeared to be the same type and were likely destined for export to Russia. 

North Korea started negotiating with Russia to sell millions of rounds of shells and rockets to Russia in September 2022, as supplies started to dwindle and Russian President Vladimir Putin realized the conflict would go on for far longer than he had planned or hoped. The first shipments of North Korean weapons reportedly arrived in November 2022, with the mercenary Wagner forces taking the supplies. 

From there, North Korean support for Russia extended into the United Nations, recognizing Moscow’s illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which Russia had used as a pretense to invade the rest of Ukraine. 

North Korea allegedly provided ammunition to Russia in late summer of 2023, and by the end of the year Russia started using North Korean ballistic missiles, attacking targets where dozens of civilians have been killed or wounded, according to Kyodo News. 

In return, Russia in March this year vetoed the renewal of a U.N. committee panel that investigates North Korean violations of Security Council resolutions. 

Former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page have settled with the Justice Department over alleged privacy rights violations after the release of their disparaging text messages leveraged by former President Trump to challenge the Russia investigation during his presidency. 

The settlement is still pending finalization and approval from a judge.

A tentative agreement was filed Tuesday resolving Page’s 5-year-old lawsuit against the FBI for releasing text messages with Strzok — with whom she had an affair — that were critical of the former president. Strzok’s lawsuit seeking back pay and reinstatement remains unsettled.

Page sought $1,000 in compensation following the leak of her text messages to the media. Additional details about the settlement were not immediately available.

In 2019, Strzok argued in a court filing in Washington, D.C., federal district court that his politically charged anti-Trump messages were protected by the First Amendment even though he sent them on bureau-issued phones while playing leading roles in the probes into both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Strzok, once the FBI’s head of counterintelligence, said he was entitled to ‘develop a full factual record through discovery,’ and that it would be premature to dismiss the case at this early stage. He went on to argue that the DOJ’s position would ‘leave thousands of career federal government employees without protections from discipline over the content of their political speech.’

Page also filed suit against the FBI and Department of Justice, alleging the government’s publication of her salacious text messages with Strzok constituted a breach of the Federal Privacy Act.

Page’s complaint also sought reimbursement for ‘the cost of childcare during and transportation to multiple investigative reviews and appearances before Congress,’ the ‘cost of paying a data-privacy service to protect her personal information’ and attorney’s fees.

In a later filing, according to CNN, Strzok’s lawyers wrote that the defendants ‘should not be heard to complain about the notoriety and putative damage to the FBI’s reputation from Strzok’s speech when it was their own illegal disclosures, magnified and distorted by the false attacks made by the President and his allies, that placed a spotlight on Strzok’s opinions.’

The two were involved in the FBI’s initial counterintelligence investigation into Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign associates during the 2016 election and later served on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team.

In 2020, the spotlight was on the lovers’ scandal during a live performance titled ‘FBI Lovebirds: UnderCovers’ at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which was based on the anti-Trump text messages shared between the former agents. Trump has called the couple the ‘FBI lovebirds’ during his rallies. 

Fox News’ Gregg Re and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

White House officials told reporters that Israel’s airstrike on Rafah on Sunday that killed two senior Hamas terrorist leaders and dozens of civilians does not violate President Biden’s ‘red line,’ mainly because the strike did not represent a major ground operation.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby addressed reporters during a White House press briefing on Tuesday afternoon, during which time he was asked a barrage of questions about the attack on the southern Gazan city of Rafah, and when the U.S. will change its stance on Israel’s attacks.

Israel conducted an airstrike on a Hamas compound in Rafah on Sunday, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed.

One reporter asked Kirby about the attack, which struck an encampment in a densely populated area.

Kirby told the reporter the whole area of Rafah is densely populated and that a million people had evacuated the area.

The reporter asked how the strike did not violate a ‘red line’ laid out by the president.

‘We don’t want to see a major ground operation,’ Kirby said. ‘We haven’t seen that at this point.’

Kirby continued to say the White House does not want to see a single innocent life taken.

Reporters continued to press Kirby on the matter, asking if Biden had a personal limit that needed to be reached before stepping in or changing his stance.

‘The president has been very clear and very direct about what our expectations are for Israeli operations in Rafah specifically, but in Gaza…we don’t support, we won’t support a major ground operation in Rafah,’ Kirby said. ‘And, we’ve been very consistent on that, and the president said that should that occur, then it might make him have to make different decisions in terms of support. We haven’t seen that happen at this point.’

Kirby explained that a major ground operation involved tens of thousands of troops or thousands of troops moving in a coordinated set of maneuvers against a wide variety of targets on the ground, ‘in a massive way.’

U.S. officials have not seen Israeli troops move in that way, according to Kirby.

He called the events on Sunday a ‘very tragic’ airstrike, and it was not the first in recent days or weeks.

‘Nobody was asking me about red lines a week or so ago when there were other airstrikes in Rafah that didn’t cause civilian casualties,’ Kirby said. ‘This is an airstrike. It’s not a major ground operation. It’s different. Now, again, we’re not taking anything at face value, either. We’re not on the ground.’

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., was asked on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ on Wednesday whether Israel had crossed the U.S. ‘red line’ for future weapons support following the strike in Rafah.

Fetterman, who has irked the left with his staunch support of Israel, said the images from the region were ‘heartbreaking,’ but they represent a hard truth about the conflict.

Fetterman called Israel a key ally and said he would absolutely trust and work with someone like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Hamas leaders and other key players in the region.

‘It’s a very difficult situation in Gaza. But I do believe that Hamas [cannot] be allowed to operate if there’s going to be any enduring peace in this situation,’ Fetterman said.

Fox News’ Nikolas Lanum, Bradford Betz and Trey Yingst contributed to this report.

A verdict in the NY v. Trump case will mark an ‘important day’ for the nation, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

‘I have to be pretty honest with you. I have not talked to the president about that,’ Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday during a gaggle on Air Force One. ‘This is going to be an important day. Obviously, the campaign is going to have more to share. The president and I said this yesterday, a couple of times when I was asked this question in various ways, that the president is focused on the American people, delivering for the American people.’

‘You’ll hear him talk about… some of that today. Again, the campaign will speak to that since it’s a campaign event,’ Jean-Pierre said. ‘That’s his focus.’

The jury began deliberations ahead of noon on Wednesday after a long day in court on Tuesday, when they heard closing arguments from the defense team and a lengthy one from the District Attorney’s Office. 

Trump is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors worked to prove that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to former pornographic star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to quiet her claims of an alleged affair with Trump in 2006. 

Trump addressed the media Wednesday, vowing that he will win the 2024 race for the White House, while slamming the case as one ‘Mother Teresa could not beat.’

‘The judge, who, as you know, is very conflicted and corrupt. Because of the confliction, very, very corrupt. Mother Teresa could not beat these charges. These charges are rigged. The whole thing is rigged,’ Trump said late Wednesday morning as jury deliberations kicked off. 

‘The whole country is a mess, between the borders and fake elections, and you have a trial like this where the judge is so conflicted, he can’t breathe. He’s got to do his job.… it’s a disgrace. And I mean that, Mother Teresa could not beat those charges. But we’ll see. We’ll see how we do.’ 

On Tuesday, as the defense and prosecution teams delivered their respective closing arguments, the Biden-Harris campaign held a press conference outside the courtroom that was headlined by actor Robert De Niro. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were not present during the event. 

De Niro claimed in his comments that Trump ‘could destroy the world’ if he’s re-elected. 

‘Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city, but the country. And eventually he could destroy the world,’ De Niro said.

‘I owe this city a lot. And that’s why it’s so weird that Donald Trump is just across the street because he doesn’t belong in my city. I don’t know where he belongs, but he certainly doesn’t belong here. We New Yorkers used to tolerate him when he was just another grubby real estate hustler masquerading as a big shot,’ De Niro added. 

The actor was shouted down during the event by protesters supporting Trump, including the actor getting into a heated back and forth with protesters as he left the press conference. 

Trump has, meanwhile, repeatedly slammed the trial as one promoted by the Biden administration in an effort to hurt their political opponent. 

‘Let me just tell you that the White House… they’re the one trying this case. You heard who was doing all the talking: a representative from the White House, just recently. This is all about Biden, he can’t campaign. So, he’s trying to injure his opponent. They’re trying to hurt the opponent because they can’t win it fair and square. It’s lawfare,’ Trump said last week. 

New York City – Bystanders outside former President Trump’s criminal trial on Wednesday spoke to Fox News Digital and blasted what they said is a political prosecution of the former president and chief political rival of President Biden.

‘This thing is damaging to the American legal system for decades to come,’ a man outside the courtroom told Fox News Digital. ‘The political use of the courts. Listen, on this level, it’s dreadful… never mind Trump, it’s damaging to the country.’

When asked if he thought the trial was politically motivated, the man scoffed in agreement and said, ‘It’s also economically motivated.’

‘Let’s do it fair, let’s lay out the deck of cards, if Biden is scared to lay down the deck of cards and ask what happened with the cocaine in the White House, the people still want to know… why CNN aint publicize that, why?’ 

Another man wearing a New York Yankees cap told Fox News Digital, ‘Why they ain’t making no news about it? It’s not about being a racist, you know I was a Democrat for long [time], but I had to research and start seeing things and I started to come to a clear perception and said, ‘Nah, Donald Trump is right.’’

‘You don’t have to agree with him about everything but one thing you can say… he  love to take care of the people, he love people,’ the man added.

‘Because he’s doing everything for us,’ a woman outside the courtroom told Fox News Digital when asked why she believes Trump is a ‘good president.’

Another man told Fox News Digital he thinks Democrats are ‘desperate’ and ‘losing their s—.’

‘They’re losing their composure and they’re just so scared that he might be elected they’re just losing their stuff totally,’ the man, who was holding an American flag, added.

When asked what the outcome of the trial will be, the man said, ‘His ratings will go up, we have a Constitution, so sooner or later, whatever at first happens will be overturned, so thank God we’re a constitutional republic.’

The man said he ‘wouldn’t be surprised’ if Trump was convicted in the New York City case, but the ‘consensus seems to be a hung jury.’ 

‘It shows that it’s fragile,’ the man said about how this trial reflects the criminal justice system in the United States. ‘Half the country doesn’t realize that we have a constitutional republic, and they think that the quote ‘majority’ should make the laws and that’s not the way it works. The Constitution supersedes the majority.’

Jurors in the case were handed their final instructions on Wednesday and were sent out to deliberate on Trump’s guilt in the 34 charges against him stemming from allegations he improperly covered up an NDA agreement with porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump has pleaded not guilty on all counts and dismissed the allegations as a political prosecution.

Fox News Digital’s Matteo Cina contributed to this report

: Bicameral lawmakers are highlighting the Biden administration’s failure to adequately study the environmental impact of the abortion pill, particularly amid the rise in at-home medication abortions. 

‘The full impact of mifepristone has never been sufficiently studied,’ Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., wrote in a letter to Michael Regan, President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator.

The lawmakers stressed the importance of this development in light of the rising number of medication-induced abortions, for which mifepristone is commonly administered. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 63% of all U.S. abortions last year were conducted by medication. This marked a 10% rise in the method relative to the share of all abortions since 2020. 

Rubio and Brecheen alleged that the only survey of the effect mifepristone has on the environment was an assessment from 1996. They claimed the survey, which was relied on by the Food and Drug Administration when it approved the medication in 2000, ‘failed to consider that human fetal remains and the drug’s active metabolites would be making their way into wastewater systems across the U.S.’

‘The American people deserve to know the negative effects caused by chemical abortion drugs,’ they wrote. 

The Republicans described that ‘Because chemical abortions are primarily self-induced and performed at home, the blood and placental tissue containing mifepristone’s active metabolites are flushed into wastewater systems along with the fetal remains of the unborn child.’

They further requested answers from Biden’s EPA, asking how the agency plans to ‘ensure the safety of our waterways and drinking water,’ what the ‘negative health effects for humans associated with exposure to mifepristone and fetal remains in drinking water’ are, and how aquatic animals might also be affected. 

‘Once received, EPA will review this letter and will respond appropriately,’ the agency told Fox News Digital. 

Mifepristone has encountered significant controversy as Republicans scrutinize the medication and what they say are lax regulations for it, while Democrats hail the drug as safe, effective and even necessary health care, while abortion access continues to be limited across the country. 

Abortion rights groups have likened various concerns over the drug and its implementation to attempts to exercise control over women’s bodily autonomy. 

‘Study after study has shown medication abortion and mifepristone to be safe and effective — with or without a health center visit. Those findings have only grown clearer in the more than two decades mifepristone has been on the U.S. market,’ Planned Parenthood Federation of America President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said in a statement earlier this year.