The Supreme Court will hear a case on Tuesday surrounding New Jersey’s Democrat attorney general trying to expose thousands of donors and collect ten years of internal documents from a group of pro-life pregnancy centers.
The question before the high court is largely procedural, although the case has broad-sweeping consequences for pregnancy centers in a post-Roe v. Wade landscape where pro-life organizations face more attacks, both violent and political. Justices will specifically weigh in on whether or not First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, a group of faith-based pregnancy centers, is allowed to challenge New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin’s investigation in federal court — an investigation the organization argues is unconstitutional.
Platkin served a subpoena demanding First Choice identify donors behind nearly 5,000 donations by name and produce ten years of related internal documents. First Choice tried to challenge the subpoena in federal court, arguing that the state had violated the First Amendment, Breitbart News detailed in June. Platkin responded by filing his own lawsuit in state court, an action which led lower federal courts to rule that First Choice must pursue federal claims in state court first.
In response, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to hold that civil rights plaintiffs do not need to litigate challenges to state investigations in state court before they can bring federal claims. The Supreme Court ADF wrote on behalf of First Choice. It agreed to take up the case in June.
ADF wrote on behalf of First Choice:
The question presented is: Where the subject of a state investigatory demand has established a reasonably objective chill of its First Amendment rights, is a federal court in a first-filed action deprived of jurisdiction because those rights must be adjudicated in state court?
