by Bitter and Sebastian at Shall Not Be Questioned have been part of the gun blogosphere for a long, long time. While not as active as they used to be, they are still astute observers of all things NRA.
Bitter has a wonderful fisking of the NRA’s public response to Judge Hale’s dismissal of their bankruptcy case.
She concluded:
In general, this public response highlights that it’s time for Wayne to go, along with most of the yes men he has put into place. This is an embarrassment to the organization, especially as anyone remotely literate can read what the judge really said.
The blog NRA In Danger also provides a brutal fisking of the NRA’s public statement. They may be the new kids on the block in terms of blogging but whoever is writing the blog has a deep, insider knowledge of how things actually work at the NRA.
When a bankruptcy judge who has been on the bench many years, and “seen them all,” says conduct shocks him, you’re hearing it from an expert.
NRA CEO & EVP Wayne LaPierre said today’s decision – and the ongoing independence of the NRA – empowers the Association’s approximately 5 million members.
If the suit being dismissed empowers the members, does that mean that winning the suit would have dis-empowered them?
“We will never shrink from the tough and principled stands we take”
I’m getting too nauseous to continue. Hitler in his bunker was less delusional.
We had better enjoy the NRA annual meeting in four months, because it will probably be the last annual meeting. Anyone on, or getting elected to, the board, had best face the fact that they face lifelong dishonor as a member of the board that killed this fine organization. NRA has had men who held the Medal of Honor on its board, but they have been replaced by people who tremble at the thought just of dissenting. Let the leadership go insane and destroy the 150-year-old organization, these directors would rather not grow a spine.
Frank Tait, who I supported in his efforts to win a seat on theBoard and who I will be writing in for election to the Board, looked at the bankruptcy effort from a business perspective. He, after all, has been in managerial positions for many years.
“So why did you file? We can only guess that the lawyers saw the prospect of a wealthy client who wasn’t adverse to paying big fees, and thought of nothing else. Not even the most core ideas: 1. What do we want from the court? 2. is that something the court can legally give us?”
In my 40 years in business, I’ve been involved in multiple legal disputes. There is critical mindset to legal matters. THE LAWYERS WORK FOR YOU, not the other way around. The secondary mindset is risk-reward considerations, or as a former CEO liked to say “is the juice worth the squeeze.” Both of these key mindsets appear absent from the EVP and the Officers of the Board – and the remainder of the board is not asking the tough questions that are their fiduciary obligation.
Finally, Georgetown Law professor Adam Levitin has been following the case from the start. He may not be aware of the inner dynamics of the NRA but he wrote the textbook on bankruptcy law. His verdict on the filing from a legal standpoint is that it was a fool’s errand from the start.
The NRA’s bankruptcy petition was dismissed as filed in bad faith. I’m predicting that the court’s opinion will be in the next edition of every bankruptcy textbook as the case really is a textbook example of bad faith. The court found that there was substantial evidence in the record that the NRA filed for bankruptcy for the purpose of gaining an advantage in its litigation with the NY Attorney General, namely depriving the NY Attorney General of the remedy of dissolution, rather than for any other purpose.
He notes he’d be surprised if the NRA appeals or refiles. Moreover, he wonders if the creditors’ attorneys will file a sanctions motion against either the NRA or its attorneys for reimbursement of their litigation costs given the bad faith filing ruling.
Read all four of these blog posts. They all take a different approach but all conclude the whole bankruptcy filing was a fiasco.