I’m sure that my readers who have been following the story of what happened in Canada with the Trudeau Liberal Party and the peaceful trucker protests in Ottawa will know how much the secular left loves to freeze the bank accounts of people who challenge them. Well, you might be surprised to find out that it happens in America, too. Well, with certain banks.

My podcast partner Rose sent me this article by Jeremy Tedesco of Alliance Defending Freedom, which appeared in the Daily Wire (full text archived).

It starts by talking about a New York State case that is going before the U.S. Supreme Court:

[T]he National Rifle Association is challenging New York’s attempt to coerce banks and insurance companies to withdraw services from the group. The NRA alleges that the Department of Financial Services — at the behest of then-Governor Andrew Cuomo — used its vast power to regulate “reputational risk” along with back-channel meetings, public investigations, and threats of fines to punish the group for its Second Amendment advocacy.

What I liked about this article, but you might find it disturbing, is the list of other times when banks tried to “de-bank” Christians and conservatives:

 As Alliance Defending Freedom points out in a friend-of-the-court brief filed in support of the NRA’s position, pro-life group Heartbeat International was recently canceled by its insurance provider over its “anti-abortion” advocacy.

He linked to a whole list of de-bankings here. Some of the victims are famous, like former Republican Senator Sam Brownback! And The Ruth Institute – I’ve blogged many times about the founder of The Ruth Institute, Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse.

More from the article:

[…]Former Brexit leader Nigel Farage’s high-profile case resulted in the ouster of megabank NatWest’s CEO. Serial offender JPMorgan Chase’s hit list includes the Arkansas Family Council, Defense of Liberty, and U.S Ambassador Sam Brownback’s National Committee for Religious Freedom.

You can check how bad your bank is at this link (from the article). I was happy to see that my bank was pretty good, but I chose them after looking at their political donations on OpenSecrets.org. Mind you, I’m trying to switch over to a state-level bank right now.

But another step I took was to move to a red state, and that’s something that might help me in the future:

The solution to this problem may lie with the states. This state legislative season presents an opportunity for states interested in protecting against politicized de-banking to act. Any such law should focus on the worst actors – the largest banks and payment processors.

The conservative states are more likely to do something about this, just like you see Texas fighting back against Biden to secure the border. I can’t imagine why someone would live in a leftist state – it’s just too easy for them to persecute you there.