On Wednesday, Hot Air posted an article about a Supreme Court case involving a New Jersey Pregnancy Center.
The article reports:
There was another Supreme Court decision today which isn’t getting as much attention as the Voting Rights decision, but it represents a win for pro-life pregnancy centers against an attorney general seeking to harass them. Here’s the backstory to this case taken from the decision written by Justice Gorsuch.
First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc., is a religious nonprofit organization that has provided counseling and resources to pregnant women in New Jersey since 1985. Believing that “life begins at conception,” and seeking “to protect and honor life in all stages of development,” the group does not provide abortions or refer clients to others for abortions.
In 2022, New Jersey’s Attorney General, Matthew Platkin, established a “Reproductive Rights Strike Force.”… Shortly after its creation, the Strike Force issued a “consumer alert” in which it accused groups like First Choice of “seek[ing] to prevent people from accessing comprehensive reproductive health care” by “provid[ing] false or misleading information about abortion.” App. 357–358. The alert concluded by directing women to abortion providers and asking members of the public who believed they were “victim[s] of fraudulent, deceptive, misleading, or unlawful conduct” to “please file a complaint with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs.”
In short, this was a partisan witch hunt which turned up no witches. Naturally, that didn’t matter to AG Platkin who resorted to subpoena’s and threats.
Neither the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs or the Attorney General’s office received any complaints. The Attorney General demanded a list of donors, which was refused by the Pregnancy Center.
The Washington Post reported:
The Supreme Court held unanimously on Wednesday that a chain of faith-based antiabortion pregnancy centers can mount a federal court challenge to a subpoena for its donors that it claims is part of an intimidation campaign by New Jersey officials hostile to its views on abortion.
The justices sided with First Choice Women’s Resource Centers Inc., which claimed the request by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin (D) chilled its First Amendment rights to speech and association with donors because disclosure might make supporters leery of contributing money.
Also noted in The Washington Post:
In briefs submitted to the court, a number of organizations noted that having an avenue to fight politically motivated investigations was crucial for nonprofits and other advocacy-based groups.
Among them was the American Civil Liberties Union, which publicly acknowledged it did not fall on the same side as First Choice when it came to abortion policy but signed on to an amicus brief, saying that such broad subpoenas could “put all advocacy at risk.”
Sometimes politics makes strange bedfellows!