There was another Supreme Court decision today which isn’t getting as much attention as the Voting Rights decision, but it represents a win for pro-life pregnancy centers against an attorney general seeking to harass them. Here’s the backstory to this case taken from the decision written by Justice Gorsuch.
First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc., is a religious nonprofit organization that has provided counseling and resources to pregnant women in New Jersey since 1985. Believing that “life begins at conception,” and seeking “to protect and honor life in all stages of development,” the group does not provide abortions or refer clients to others for abortions.
In 2022, New Jersey’s Attorney General, Matthew Platkin, established a “Reproductive Rights Strike Force.”… Shortly after its creation, the Strike Force issued a “consumer alert” in which it accused groups like First Choice of “seek[ing] to prevent people from accessing comprehensive reproductive health care” by “provid[ing] false or misleading information about abortion.” App. 357–358. The alert concluded by directing women to abortion providers and asking members of the public who believed they were “victim[s] of fraudulent, deceptive, misleading, or unlawful conduct” to “please file a complaint with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs.”
In short, this was a partisan witch hunt which turned up no witches. Naturally, that didn’t matter to AG Platkin who resorted to subpoena’s and threats.
Neither that division nor the Attorney General’s office received any complaints from the public about First Choice. Even so, the Attorney General served a subpoena on the group in 2023. The subpoena stated that it had been issued pursuant to several New Jersey laws, including the State’s Consumer Fraud Act. The subpoena “commanded” First Choice to produce various documents within 30 days and warned the group (twice) that “[f]ailure to comply with this Subpoena may render you liable for contempt of Court and such other penalties as are provided by law.”
One of the many things demanded by the AG was a list of donors to First Choice which included their personal information such as “names, phone numbers, addresses, and places of employment.” At that point, First Choice went to court in an attempt to block the subpoenas. The federal court repeatedly refused to act and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit agreed though their was a dissent from one judge who though this case sounded a lot like another case the Supreme Court had recently decided.
Judge Stephanos Bibas dissented. In his view, First Choice’s case was “indistinguishable from Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta,” the Supreme Court’s 2021 decision striking down, on First Amendment grounds, California’s requirement that charities and nonprofits in the state provide the state attorney general’s office with the names and addresses of their largest donors.
In today’s decision, the Supreme Court sided with First Choice 9-0.
The Supreme Court held unanimously on Wednesday that a chain of faith-based antiabortion pregnancy centers can mount a federal court challenge to a subpoena for its donors that it claims is part of an intimidation campaign by New Jersey officials hostile to its views on abortion.
The justices sided with First Choice Women’s Resource Centers Inc., which claimed the request by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin (D) chilled its First Amendment rights to speech and association with donors because disclosure might make supporters leery of contributing money.
Not only was the outcome of this case unanimous, even the ACLU submitted an amicus brief supporting the pro-life group. It’s not often that the Trump administration and the ACLU are on the same side of a case.
In briefs submitted to the court, a number of organizations noted that having an avenue to fight politically motivated investigations was crucial for nonprofits and other advocacy-based groups.
Among them was the American Civil Liberties Union, which publicly acknowledged it did not fall on the same side as First Choice when it came to abortion policy but signed on to an amicus brief, saying that such broad subpoenas could “put all advocacy at risk.”
AG Platkin left office in January of this year and went into private practice. In any case, this is a win for crisis pregnancy centers and all groups who want to avoid harassment by partisan state officials.
Editor’s Note: Unelected federal judges are hijacking President Trump’s agenda and insulting the will of the people.
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