Last fall, the VDARE Foundation received a subpoena from the New York Attorney General, Letitia James, below.

NY AG Letitia James presses MSG over use of facial recognition technology - CNBC https://t.co/gKrHnKV3bN pic.twitter.com/vRRuvdAQje

— poitrinn (@Poitrinn) January 25, 2023

Although the broad sweep of the demands made us suspect this was a fishing expedition, we tried to comply.

In early December, 6,000 documents and a six-figure legal bill later, it became clear to us that we could finally demonstrate the NY AG was not acting in good faith.  (She has a long record of trampling on the First Amendment rights of anyone associated with the Patriot Right, especially those, like VDARE, who dare to point out the ongoing Great Replacement.)   We therefore filed suit in federal court, citing among other things, the obvious First Amendment violation by the NY AG.

Learning of this, the AG filed another action in NY State Court in a blatant attempt to preempt our federal suit. We filed our response last Friday, January 20. But on Monday, January 23, in one of the quickest and sloppiest decisions our lawyers have ever seen, Judge Sabrina Kraus abruptly ruled against us.

Judge Kraus ignored our arguments and actually broadened the scope of the subpoena. And, outrageously, she repeated a falsehood I have repeatedly refuted in our subpoena responses:

Public postings by Respondent Chairman Peter Brimelow and others indicate that he and his family have used the castle as their primary residence since at least March 2020. 

This is absolutely untrue. We paid rent for the brief time we lived in the Castle, until our family’s new home in Berkeley Springs was refurbished. Other than that, the Berkeley Springs Castle has been used exclusively as intended, as offices and meeting space for VDARE activities, for which we pay rent, except when it has been donated to other charities, notably the Bath Christmas Project.

Subsequently, on 6:32 p.m. on Monday, Eugene Volokh of The Volokh Conspiracy blog published Castle America: N.Y. Can Subpoena VDARE’s Records Related to Alleged Financial Self-Dealing by Nonprofit Directors. Apart from the inflammatory headline, this is simply an extract from the ruling.

These people move fast! Could this be a conspiracy?

I am disappointed in Eugene Volokh, whom we have praised many times (here, here, and here, for example.). By publicizing the extract in the way he did without qualification, he has promoted the impression that we have betrayed our donors. A glance at his comment thread proves this. This he should have anticipated. Ironically, one of the people who inspired us to seek redress in federal court was none other than Professor Volokh.

But I am not surprised at the Open Borders Loonies at Reason magazine, which hosts his site. (Although in the comment thread one post did note that we should have prevailed in our First Amendment suit against Colorado Springs).

The Regime’s weaponized misuse of government resources and the courts to bankrupt and destroy political opponents is a major scandal. And it threatens far more than our tiny VDARE Foundation. See John Derbyshire’s NY AG LETITIA JONES vs. VDARE FOUNDATION: Why is lawfare legal?

More coming soon, alas.

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