NRA Texas Relocation Rejected by Judge Who Dismisses Bankruptcy

The National Rifle Association can’t use bankruptcy to reincorporate to gun-friendly Texas from New York, where it faces a governmental fraud lawsuit, a judge in Dallas ruled.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Harlin “Cooter” Hale dismissed the NRA’s Chapter 11 case after a weeks-long trial in which New York officials claimed the filing was a bad-faith effort to dodge oversight.

The decision means that New York Attorney General Letitia James should have an easier time seizing the NRA’s assets if she wins her lawsuit in New York. In that suit, James argues that NRA head Wayne LaPierre and others so badly mismanaged the group that it should be dissolved. Had the Chapter 11 proceedings continued, Hale could have used his authority as a federal judge to limit what James could do with any NRA property she won control of.

(Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP, is a donor to candidates and groups that support gun control, including Everytown for Gun Safety.)

To contact the reporters on this story:
Steven Church in Wilmington, Delaware at schurch3@bloomberg.net;
Neil Weinberg in New York at nweinberg2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Claire Boston at cboston6@bloomberg.net

Dan Wilchins

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