Supreme Court Sides with Pregnancy Resource Center in Win for Pro-Life Donors

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with a pro-life pregnancy resource center that had raised First Amendment concerns about a New Jersey investigation into its practices.

The Court handed First Choice Women’s Resource Centers a unanimous procedural victory in the case, which centers on a state investigation into whether it misled patients to discourage abortions. The ruling allows First Choice to challenge, in federal court, a subpoena it received from then-New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin (D) demanding donor lists and other information from the center.

First Choice had argued the investigation was baseless and that the demands threatened their First Amendment rights to free speech and association. But when the group tried to challenge the subpoena in federal court, a judge —and later an appeals court — found the case was not yet far enough along. The lower court found that First Choice had not suffered any injury from the subpoena, and therefore did not have the legal standing to sue.

However, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that First Choice has established an injury to its First Amendment rights of association, and is therefore able to challenge the subpoena in federal court.

“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,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote.

First Choice is a self-described "faith-based nonprofit that advocates pro-life views" and operates five facilities in the Garden State.

The group had received bipartisan support in its bid to challenge the subpoena, including from the American Civil Liberties Union, which shared the center's First Amendment concerns about the investigation, saying that subpoenas seeking donor information can scare away supporters. First Choice also received support from 19 Republican state attorneys general and religious groups, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

New Jersey officials, for their part, argued that the information would only be used to ask donors whether they had been deceived about First Choice’s services, as part of an investigation into whether the center had violated state consumer fraud laws.

They further claimed the demand for information did not threaten First Choice's First Amendment rights because the group had not yet been required to turn over any information, and also expressed concerns that granting First Choice standing to sue could encourage a slew of lawsuits from thousands of businesses that receive similar subpoenas from the state.