Court Ruling Allowing Class Action Against NRA to Proceed
Filing Summary
On September 30, 2020, the Judge overseeing the donor class action lawsuit against the NRA, NRA Foundation, and Wayne LaPierre allowed the case to proceed against the NRA in a written decision of the Court. The decision was a setback to the NRA, which had requested a complete dismissal of the case.
In allowing a fraud claim against the NRA to proceed to discovery, the court found that the class action “plaintiffs allege that the funds were spent on things that were not in furtherance of the mission of the NRA. It was not necessary that the NRA know at the time what the extraneous expenditures would be, only that they knew that money would be spent outside the mission.” (p.11-12). The Court further reasoned that “Given the extent of the alleged misspent funds – in both duration and volume – the Court finds Plaintiffs’ allegation that the NRA knew donated funds would not be used to advance the mission of the NRA sufficiently plausible to state a claim.”
Claims against the NRA Foundation and Wayne LaPierre were dismissed.