A federal judge granted an appeal from the National Rifle Association Tuesday, ordering that Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the New York Department of Financial Services must produce documents in a lawsuit by the gun-rights group against state officials.

The documents will be reviewed in camera by U.S. Magistrate Judge Christian Hummel and an appointed special master, Senior District Judge Thomas McAvoy of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York decided.

The NRA appealed the magistrate judge's ruling after he decided that some categories of documents were not relevant to discovery in the case, which is based on the legal theory that New York improperly discouraged banks and insurers from doing business with the NRA because of its exercise of free speech and positions on the Second Amendment.

McAvoy found that the NRA's quest for discovery has some resemblance to the classic "fishing expedition" disallowed by law, but he nevertheless disagreed with Hummel because relevance in the context of discovery is broad, he wrote.

He added that the case involves "unique circumstances" because the NRA has a pending motion to reintroduce its claim that the state engaged in selective enforcement, which might make the sought-after categories more relevant.

"Here, although Plaintiff's speculation that relevant documents exist sounds of an improper fishing expedition, and although it raises relevancy in connection with a qualified immunity defense that was not presented to Magistrate Judge Hummel, the possibility that relevant documents exist compels the Court to conclude that over-production of documents rather than under-production is the proper course to follow," McAvoy wrote.

William Brewer, a partner at Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors and lead attorney for the NRA, said he's glad that discovery can move forward after what he described as a prolonged delay.

In the first day after McAvoy's decision was filed, Brewer said his team began contacting third parties who may have relevant documents.

"We've now already begun contacting each of them in turn, supplying them with the ruling and saying Judge McAvoy disagrees, obviously those communications you had with the defendants relative to the NRA during this key period of time are relevant to our claims, please turn them over," he said. "And we hope that we'll see a different level of cooperation and then we can go forward and start scheduling depositions when we all get to the other side of this very difficult time we're all going through."

He said he believes discovery can move forward electronically while people are dispersed due to the coronavirus. By July, when Brewer hopes to begin depositions, he said he hopes that life will have begun returning to normal.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Financial Services said the agency is reviewing McAvoy's decision.

"We strongly disagree with the NRA's continued use of abusive discovery demands in its baseless lawsuit," the spokeswoman said.

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