New Jersey Doubles Down on Demand for Pregnancy Center’s Donor Data Despite Supreme Court Decision

New Jersey’s attorney general, Jennifer Davenport, is asking a state court to enforce a subpoena against a crisis pregnancy center, First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, even after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the center could challenge the subpoena.In November 2023, the then-New Jersey attorney general, Matthew Platkin, issued a subpoena to First Choice, demanding the names and contact information of the abortion clinic alternative’s donors. At the time, Mr. Platkin did not ask a court to enforce the subpoena, a required step in New Jersey to compel compliance. The Supreme Court heard arguments in December about whether the pregnancy center could challenge the subpoena. An attorney representing New Jersey argued that since the subpoena was not self-enforcing, it was more of a “voluntary request.” Last week, the high court unanimously sided with First Choice to not give up its donor list. Despite that ruling, Ms. Davenport doubled down on efforts to force First Choice to hand over the information and sent a letter to the state’s Superior Court Judge Lisa Adubato asking her to let the state enforce its subpoena.“The Court determined that First Choice has Article III standing to proceed with a federal-court challenge to the Division of Consumer Affairs’ November 15, 2023, subpoena at issue in this case. The Court, however, did not ‘decide the merits of First Choice’s’ challenge to the Subpoena,” the letter reads. “There is no basis for this Court to stay its hand while the federal-court litigation proceeds simultaneously.”In a statement, a lawyer for Alliance for Defending Freedom, which represents the pregnancy center, Erin Hawley, said, “New Jersey’s attorney general is doubling down on her predecessor’s hostile crusade to keep First Choice from vindicating its First Amendment rights in federal court.”“Attorney General Davenport requested that the state court fast-track its enforcement proceedings to preempt the federal court’s review. That move disregards the Supreme Court’s ruling and underscores the stark reality of this case: For more than two years, New Jersey state officials have targeted First Choice simply because they dislike its pro-life views,” she added.The state’s investigation and the debate over whether New Jersey can subpoena First Choice have brought together several organizations that are typically at odds —the ACLU and the Alliance Defending Freedom — in support of First Choice amid concerns about government officials using investigations to punish or intimidate groups they dislike. In a brief submitted in First Choice’s favor, the ACLU and FIRE argued that state officials seeking donor information could lead groups to self-censor or make donors less likely to associate with an entity that is the subject of an investigation. The justice who penned the high court’s opinion last week, Neil Gorsuch, wrote that the subpoena request “injures the group’s First Amendment associational rights.”“The Attorney General does not dispute much of this,” he said. “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.”Mr. Platkin argued that his investigation was not driven by an animus toward crisis pregnancy centers, which aim to point women toward options other than abortion, and insisted he was concerned that First Choice was misleading donors into believing that it provided abortions. However, during oral arguments at the Supreme Court, several justices pressed New Jersey’s lawyer, Sundeep Iyer, on whether the attorney general had received any complaints from residents about First Choice. Mr. Iyer said the state had not received any complaints about the organization, but was concerned about the language on its website and promotional materials.Mr. Iyer also insisted that it was a false narrative that Mr. Platkin had animus toward crisis pregnancy centers, despite his public warnings about the groups.

New Jersey Doubles Down on Demand for Pregnancy Center’s Donor Data Despite Supreme Court Decision

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