Tipsheet

SCOTUS Just Ruled in Favor of a Pro-Life Pregnancy Center Targeted by New Jersey's Attorney General

Last November, First Choice Women's Resource Centers was headed to the Supreme Court after the state of New Jersey targeted them as part of what First Choice Executive Director Aimee Huber called a "fishing expedition."

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin subpoenaed First Choice, demanding a decade's worth of documents, including statements on abortion pill reversal, any information it provided to clients and donors, documentation identifying personnel, copies of every First Choice advertisement and donor solicitation, and information about any outside organizations First Choice worked with.

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) sued on behalf of First Choice in December 2023, calling the subpoena "unlawful" and "unjust." In the lawsuit, ADF said Platkin "electively targeted First Choice Women’s Resource Centers based on its religious speech and pro-life views with a wide-ranging, unfounded, and burdensome subpoena that requires the organization to expend its limited resources to produce extensive documentation or face judicial sanctions."

That suit worked its way through lower courts, which all ruled in favor of Platkin. So ADF and First Choice appealed to the Supreme Court, asking it to acknowledge that First Choice had a right ot file a federal suit against Platkin.

Today, the Supreme Court ruled that First Choice does, in fact, have that right. And it did so unanimously.

You can read the entire ruling here.

Here's more:

The Court "held that those facing government action don't have to wait for the government to make good on its threats before suing to stop the First Amendment violation," according to Paul Taske of Net Choice, which filed a briefing on behalf of First Choice.

This is a major win for the pro-life movement and free speech.

At the center of Platkin's subpoena was the argument that donors might think they're supporting abortion while donating to a pro-life pregnancy center. "We're skeptical of that theory because he's someone who has been overtly hostile to the mission of pregnancy centers," Lincoln Wilson, a lawyer with ADF said at the time. "He issued a consumer alert against pregnancy centers, warning New Jerseyans that they do not perform abortions, and he even asked Planned Parenthood to help him draft the alert." 

Make no mistake: what New Jersey attempted to do was make public information about First Choice, its staff, and its donors. This would have opened the door to harassment and targeting by the radical pro-abortion Democrats who run the state.