WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court unanimously allowed a New Jersey-based crisis pregnancy center to fight a Garden State subpoena demanding access to its donor information.
The lower courts had dismissed First Choice Women’s Resource Centers’ lawsuit, buying New Jersey’s assertion that the plaintiffs could not sue to quash the subpoena because the state needed a court order to enforce it.
The justices disagreed, with conservative Neil Gorsuch writing on behalf of his colleagues: “An official demand for private donor information is enough to discourage reasonable individuals from associating with a group.
“It is enough to discourage groups from expressing dissident views. A government that chooses to make private donor information public may make the damage worse.”
First Choice Women’s Resource Centers had contended that being compelled to share donor information with the state could have a chilling effect on individuals giving them money.
New Jersey had claimed it had sought the subpoena as part of an investigation into whether the pro-life group was defrauding donors.
