The Second Amendment Foundation and its founder, Alan Gottlieb, have filed a federal lawsuit against Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson alleging civil rights violations during an ongoing investigation of SAF activities which began almost two years ago.
The lawsuit comes only two days after Ferguson announced his “exploratory campaign” to run for governor in 2024, following the announcement by three-term Gov. Jay Inslee he will not seek a fourth term.
Joining SAF in this legal action are the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, the Service Bureau Association, Merril Mail Marketing and Liberty Park Press. They are represented by attorneys Steven W. Fogg and Jack M. Lovejoy at Corr Cronin LLP in Seattle. The case is known as Second Amendment Foundation v. Ferguson. It was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
Ferguson and three assistant AG’s assigned to the Consumer Protection Division (CPD) of the Attorney General’s office are being sued individually and in their official capacities, the complaint says.
SAF and its fellow plaintiffs are asking the court to “Declare that Defendant’s politically motivated investigatory activities, including its serving CIDs on Plaintiffs and related parties, violates the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.”
In addition, they are asking the court to enjoin Ferguson and his office from serving or enforcing Civil Investigative Demands (“CIDs”) “for politically discriminatory or retaliatory purposes and/or without reasonable suspicion of illegal activity” and to return or destroy all non-public documents or other private information in their possession” related to the investigation.
“It is a sad day when you have to sue the state Attorney General for violating your civil rights,” Gottlieb said in a prepared statement. “This is not something we ever anticipated, nor do we take any pleasure in it. However, because the CPD has singled out SAF and myself for invasive and expensive harassment because of my political beliefs, especially my positions on gun control and our outspoken criticism of Attorney General Ferguson, our only recourse is to take legal action.”
According to the complaint, “Over the last two years, the Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney General’s Office (‘CPD’) has carried out an expansive, highly intrusive probe into the private affairs of SAF, CCRKBA, CDFE, SBA, LPP, MMM, Mr. Gottlieb, and his family. It has served Civil Investigative Demands (‘CIDs’) on each of the plaintiffs, including two on Mr. Gottlieb, citing the same consumer protection laws Mr. Ferguson was recently found to have abused.”
The reference was to a recent Washington Supreme Court ruling which “held unanimously that Mr. Ferguson’s office improperly used Washington Consumer Protection and Charitable Solicitations Acts to suppress constitutionally protected speech with which he disagreed.”
This was an investigation of the Savers Value Village chain. As reported earlier this year by U.S. News and the Associated Press, the state Supreme Court handed the thrift company a unanimous victory “in a long-running fight” with Ferguson which had spanned some eight years. The case involved the state’s belief Savers Value Village had “created an impression that it was a nonprofit or charitable organization and that purchases at its stores directly benefited charities.” The high court ruled the company’s marketing practices were protected speech, the report explained.
“The Office of the Attorney General is one which inherently possesses significant power and comes with the expectation that its holder will not abuse that power for a political agenda or personal crusade,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “Unfortunately, for the people of Washington, Attorney General Bob Ferguson has placed his political preferences above impartiality. For the past two years, his office has inquired into the activities of the Second Amendment Foundation in a highly intrusive manner.
“From the very beginning,” Kraut stated, “the Foundation has cooperated with the Attorney General’s Office and supplied all of the requested information, made employees available for depositions, spending hundreds of man hours and tens of thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees to do so, all while pursuing its mission.”
However, according to Kraut, the Attorney General’s Office “has not once clearly articulated the basis for the investigation or any wrongdoing of the Foundation.” He asserted the investigation “stems from the Attorney General’s abuse of office in an effort to silence and cause harm to his political enemies.”
“Regrettably, and despite the Foundation’s efforts to resolve this amicably,” Kraut said, “the Attorney General has elected to continue to waste the taxpayer’s money due to his failure to recognize that his two-year fishing expedition has rendered nothing useful to his political ambitions and forced the Foundation to bring this action to vindicate its rights in an effort to stop this unjust harassment.”
