The Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Wednesday that First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, a network of pro-life pregnancy centers in New Jersey, can challenge the state’s move to force it to disclose donor information.
In a 9-0 decision, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch said the organization showed a First Amendment violation — the freedom to associate — that would give it standing, known as legal injury, to challenge the state attorney general’s subpoena in federal court.
The subpoena required the pregnancy centers to disclose donors’ names and contact information, including addresses and places of employment.
“Associational rights carry special significance for political, social, religious, and other minorities,” Justice Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, wrote. “First Choice has established a present injury to its First Amendment associational rights.”
In 2022, New Jersey’s attorney general created the Reproductive Rights Strike Force aimed at issuing consumer alerts to groups that prevent people from getting reproductive care or provide misleading information about abortion.
The move followed a wave of red states looking to restrict abortion access and blue states looking to protect it.
First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, based on its religious beliefs, does not provide information about abortions or refer women to other clinics to obtain the procedure.
The state sent the pregnancy network a subpoena, aiming to probe it as part of the newly created task force.
The pregnancy center, though, filed suit, arguing that the demand violated its First Amendment rights and would alienate supporters from giving to the organization.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled the pregnancy center’s First Amendment claim wasn’t “ripe” and that it first had to challenge the subpoena in state court.
The Supreme Court previously batted down attempts to obtain donor information for nonprofits on both sides of the political spectrum.
In 2021, the Supreme Court rejected in a 6-3 decision a California policy initiated a decade before to require nonprofits to disclose their donors, an effort challenged by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation and the Thomas More Society.
The high court noted in its decision that hundreds of nonprofit organizations on the left and right filed briefs in support of the lawsuit, citing fears that the disclosure policy would chill donor support.
• Valerie Richardson contributed to this report.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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