The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing First Choice, a faith-based pregnancy center, are asking the Supreme Court to allow it to challenge in federal court an unconstitutional investigation by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin.
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. The First Amendment protects donor identities from unjustified disclosure and prohibits a state official from retaliating against speech with which he disagrees.
“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,” said ADF Senior Counsel Erin Hawley, vice president of the ADF Center for Life and Regulatory Practice. “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.”
First Choice tried to challenge the subpoena in federal court, but Platkin responded by filing his own lawsuit in state court. That led the lower federal courts to say that First Choice must pursue its federal claims in state court first. ADF filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to review the case 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 same standard that applies to any other person suffering constitutional injury at the hands of a state official.
“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 added. “The lower courts have wrongly held that First Choice is relegated to state court to present its constitutional claims. We are looking forward to presenting our case to the Supreme Court and urging it to hold that First Choice has the same right to federal court as any other civil rights plaintiff.”
