WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, a collection of five faith-based pregnancy centers in New Jersey, may challenge in federal court an unconstitutional, coercive subpoena issued by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys represent the pregnancy centers after Platkin demanded that First Choice disclose the names, phone numbers, addresses, and places of employment of many of its donors, in addition to up to 10 years of its internal confidential documents. In its ruling, the high court recognized that such a demand implicates the First Amendment by chilling the pregnancy centers’ speech and association rights.
“In this resounding victory, the Supreme Court held to its long-standing precedent of recognizing that the Constitution protects First Choice and its donors from demands by a hostile state official to disclose donor identities and contact information,” said ADF Of Counsel Erin Hawley, who argued before the Supreme Court in December. “New Jersey’s attorney general targeted First Choice—a ministry that provides parenting classes, free ultrasounds, baby clothes, and more to its community—simply because of its pro-life views. That is blatantly unconstitutional. Should the Attorney General continue these efforts on remand, we look forward to presenting First Choice’s case in federal court.”
“For more than two years, Attorney General Platkin targeted First Choice with aggressive demands for sensitive documents, including our donors’ identities,” said First Choice Executive Director Aimee Huber. “He has gone to great lengths to frustrate the important work we do—work that has made a tangible, life-saving difference for tens of thousands of New Jersey women and their children. As the Supreme Court recognized, the government can’t evade federal court review when it harasses those who support pro-life ministries just because it disagrees with their message and their mission.”
“An official demand for private donor information is enough to discourage reasonable individuals from associating with a group,” the court wrote in its opinion in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin. “From its allegations and declarations, and given our many and longstanding precedents in the area and reasonable inferences about third party behavior, First Choice has established that the Attorney General’s demand for private donor information injures the group’s First Amendment associational rights.”
The high court reversed a lower court decision barring First Choice from presenting its constitutional claims in federal court and sent the case back down for the lower courts to consider First Choice’s claims.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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