A Christian pregnancy center won a huge legal victory on Wednesday after the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that it could fight back against New Jersey’s attempts to crack down on its life-affirming work.
The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that First Choice Women’s Resource Centers can challenge in federal court former New Jersey Democrat Attorney General Matthew Platkin’s attempt to gain access to its donor lists and promotion of the abortion pill reversal through subpoena. The opinion was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, who said that the pregnancy center had provided ample evidence that its First Amendment associational rights were at risk.
“The question before us isn’t how badly the Attorney General has burdened First Choice’s associational rights; the question is whether he has burdened those rights at all,” Gorsuch wrote. “And by effectively restricting how First Choice may interact privately with its donors, the subpoena did just that.”
First Choice Executive Director Aimee Huber celebrated the ruling.
“For more than two years, Attorney General Platkin targeted First Choice with aggressive demands for sensitive documents, including our donors’ identities. 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,” she said. “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.”
First Choice has centers in five New Jersey cities: New Brunswick, Newark, Morristown, Montclair, and Jersey City. Services include free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, and options counseling. They also offer a parenting program that provides essential needs such as baby clothes and diapers.
Represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, First Choice sued Platkin after he subpoenaed them in November 2023 for 10 years of documents related to its promotion of the abortion pill reversal, information provided to clients and donors, personnel records, and copies of every advertisement the centers had run.
The case was argued before the Supreme Court in December.
“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 Alliance Defending Freedom counsel Erin Hawley. “Should the Attorney General continue these efforts on remand, we look forward to presenting First Choice’s case in federal court.”
In the opinion, Gorsuch noted that the court has long sided against officials infringing on First Amendment rights.
“Since the 1950s, this Court has confronted one official demand after another like the Attorney General’s. Over and again, we have held those demands burden the exercise of First Amendment rights,” he said. “Disputing none of these precedents but seeking ways around them, the Attorney General has offered a variety of arguments. Some are old, some are new, but none succeeds.”
