A Louisiana commission voted Thursday to block two banking giants from taking part in a new highway project, moving to punish the companies for gun control policies they adopted after the Parkland, Florida, school shooting this year.
Citigroup and Bank of America had said they would work only with retailers who agreed to new restrictions on gun purchases — rules stricter than what federal law requires.
Louisiana’s bond commission said it wouldn’t tolerate that kind of bullying over a constitutional right and voted 7-6 to block the companies from gaining a piece of the financing for a $600 million highway plan.
The vote was a win for pro-gun advocates looking to make inroads in a debate that is increasingly spilling into the corporate arena, and comes as major service companies and social media giants move to adopt anti-firearms policies.
“If you have zero respect for the U.S. Constitution, then you don’t need to do business with the state of Louisiana,” said Sen. John N. Kennedy, a Republican who cheered his state’s move from Washington.
Opponents said Louisiana is opening itself to a lawsuit, though state Attorney General Jeff Landry said he believes state officials have “discretion to determine whether or not we want [an] agent to represent the state that restricts the Second Amendment rights that our citizens have.”
“It is not us who brought the social police into this commission — it is these institutions who did so, and in a very, very public way,” he said.
The banks said they aren’t infringing on constitutional rights.
Citibank in March announced it would work with retail clients only if they required background checks for gun purchases and curb sales, with some exceptions, to people under 21. Bank of America also announced after February’s Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that it
