(The Lion) — The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a pro-life pregnancy center’s claim it was “selectively targeted” by the New Jersey attorney general because of its religious speech and pro-life beliefs.
“Pregnancy centers offer free care, counseling and support to women, yet pro-abortion officials want to shut them down,” Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, said in a statement on X. “Time to stop the harassment.”
The case marks the latest instance of the high court’s willingness to weigh in on sensitive topics such as abortion and other cultural debates – although the main dispute will be whether pregnancy centers can go through federal courts to challenge a state attorney general’s subpoena or if they must first go through state courts.
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin “served a subpoena demanding that First Choice identify – by name – the donors behind nearly 5,000 donations and produce up to 10 years of its internal, confidential documents,” Alliance Defending Freedom noted, adding that the First Amendment “protects donor identities from unjustified disclosure” and prohibits state officials from retaliation against speech they disagree with.
“New Jersey’s attorney general is targeting First Choice – a ministry that provides parenting classes, free ultrasounds, baby clothes, and more to its community – simply because of its pro-life views,” ADF senior counsel Erin Hawley said of the case. “The Constitution protects First Choice and its donors from unjustified demands to disclose their identities, and First Choice is entitled to vindicate those rights in federal court.”
After First Choice tried to challenge the attorney general in federal court, Platkin filed a lawsuit in state court, resulting in federal courts directing First Choice to go through a state court first, ADF noted. The pregnancy center then asked the Supreme Court to weigh in and “hold that civil rights plaintiffs do not need to litigate challenges to state investigations in state court before they can bring federal claims.”
“The First Amendment protects First Choice’s right to freely speak about its beliefs, exercise its faith, associate with like-minded individuals and organizations, and continue to provide its free services in a caring and compassionate environment to people facing unplanned pregnancies,” Hawley said. “The lower courts have wrongly held that First Choice is relegated to state court to present its constitutional claims.”
Platkin has responded to the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case with optimism, claiming First Choice has “for years refused to answer questions about their operations in New Jersey and the potential misrepresentations they have been making, including about reproductive healthcare.”
He said the subpoena was “lawful” and claimed his office should be allowed to “exercise our traditional investigative authority” to ensure the pregnancy center was not deceiving or defrauding patients.
The case will be heard during the Supreme Court’s next term, which begins in October.
