December 4, 2025
WASHINGTON D.C. (12-04-2025) – Free speech rights of pro-life Americans came under attack in New Jersey in case that made it all the way to the Supreme Court. At stake is whether pro-life Americans can peacefully work to help pregnant mothers – without the government going after them at work.
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin issued a subpoena against faith-based First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc. requesting the personal information of their donors, claiming he was investigating fraud.
The subpoena asks First Choice to provide the full names, addresses, phone numbers, and places of employment of all their donors.
Hawley said during oral arguments on Tuesday:
“This court has long safeguarded the right of association by protecting the membership and donor lists of nonprofit organizations like First Choice. Yet the Attorney General of New Jersey issued a sweeping subpoena commanding on pain of contempt that Frist Choice produce donor names, addresses, and phone numbers so his office could contact and question them. That violates the right of association, yet the lower courts held that First Choice must litigate its first amendment claims in state court.”
The state’s actions make it less likely that people will donate to crisis pregnancy centers. Add on the legal costs of fighting the hostile state, and this could force pregnancy centers to close, leaving New Jersians with fewer options outside of abortion.
“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 Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Erin Hawley, who is representing First Choice, in a statement.
Students for Life Action (SFLAction) know this tactic well and is fighting a similar attack in South Dakota.
It did not seem to go well for the abortion lovers in court on Tuesday, Dec. 2. As Politico noted:
… Several justices seemed highly skeptical during Tuesday’s arguments of New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin’s contention in a written brief that the subpoena simply amounted to a “request” for the sensitive donor information because a state court’s intervention is needed to actually enforce the demand.
“I’ve never heard the term ‘subpoena request,’” Justice Clarence Thomas opined.
“An ordinary person, one of the funders for this organization, or for any similar organization, presented with this subpoena and then told, but ‘Don’t worry, it has to be stamped by a court,’ is not going to take that as very reassuring,” Justice Elena Kagan added.
New Jersey has a long history of pushing abortion and targeting crisis pregnancy centers.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed a bill into law that made New Jersey an abortion “safe haven” for New Jersey residents and non-residents in 2022. The bill provided $45 million to abortion vendors and enshrined the right to an abortion into law.
That same year, Attorney General Platkin’s office issued a “consumer alert” that tells New Jersians that crisis pregnancy centers “are organizations that seek to prevent people from accessing comprehensive reproductive health care” and encourages residents to go to Planned Parenthood and other abortion vendors.
Furthermore, the consumer alert tells residents to file complaints against pregnancy centers to the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs.
Months later in 2023, Platkin joined the ranks of Democrat attorneys general using the law to target pregnancy centers and their donors for standing up for life.
Platkin’s actions closely resemble the actions of California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who similarly subpoenaed Americans for Prosperity Foundation (APF) for donor information in 2021. APF sued Bonta in federal court, which found Bonta’s actions to violate APF’s First Amendment rights.
“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,” said Hawley in her statement.
First Choice filed their lawsuit before the Platkin could gain access to the list of donors. Because the subpoena was not fully carried out, lower courts have been hesitant to pursue the case and pushed it to the state courts.
Luckily, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in June.
First Choice says the subpoena violates the chilling effect doctrine, or the idea that certain government actions deter free speech by making citizens fear the government may target them.
Donors have voiced these fears are real.
“The possibility that our identities will be disclosed to a law enforcement official [Platkin] who is openly hostile to pro-life organizations threatens both First Choice’s protected associational rights and our rights as well,” said donors in an anonymous declaration added to a petition for writ of certiorari in the case.
This makes the Attorney General’s investigation “an imminent threat” to donors’ First Amendment right to associate with their pregnancy centers, says First Choice in the petition.
“Each of us would have been less likely to donate to First Choice if we had known information about the donation might be disclosed to an official hostile to pro-life organizations,” said the anonymous donors.
Add on the legal costs of fighting the hostile state, and pregnancy centers could be forced to close their doors. This would leave New Jersians with fewer options outside of abortion.
ADF’s website says:
“New Jersey’s attorney general selectively targeted the nonprofit based on its religious speech and pro-life views with a wide-ranging, unfounded, and burdensome subpoena that requires the organization to expend its limited resources to produce extensive documentation or face judicial sanctions. The attorney general does not refer to any substantive evidence of wrongdoing to justify his onerous demands.”
Justice Katanji Brown Jackson upheld this idea during the oral arguments.
“Our precedents give protection to donor privacy in situations of charitable solicitation,” said Justice Jackson.
Justice Clarence Thomas noted that contacting every individual donor would be “a burdensome way to find out whether someone has a confusing website,” especially when there have been no complaints against First Choice.
The Court is to decide whether this case should be heard by federal courts or the state targeting the pregnancy centers.
Sundeep Iyer, the attorney for Platkin, argued that the case needs to be heard in state court.
Justice Jackson challenged Iyer, pointing out how pursuing this case in state court could easily prevent them from seeking justice in federal court later. Iyer admitted that this would happen if Platkin got his way.
“I’ll grant you here we think they [First Choice] would be precluded [from pursuing a federal case] under New Jersey principles of preclusion,” said Iyer.
“This is just kind of obvious that there’s some kind of objective chill from a subpoena on speech,” said Justice Kavanaugh during the arguments.
Learn more about SFLA’s perspective on the case here: Students for Life Denounces the New Jersey Bullies going after Pregnancy Care Centers; “Once Again, Love for Abortion Turns into Hate for Those who Love LIFE”
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The Pro-Life Generation (PLG) is an umbrella organization encompassing the most-cutting edge engagement opportunities for a Vote Pro-Life First Community. PLG includes Students for Life Action (SFLAction), a 501c4, along with its 501c3 sister organization, Students for Life of America (SFLA), that together make up the nation’s largest, pro-life youth organization, managing a grassroots political and policy operation engaging Americans of all ages but with a special emphasis on the largest segment of voters — the Youth Vote. Headquartered in Fredericksburg, VA, PLG/SFLA/SFLAction serves more than 1,500 groups on middle, high school, college, medical, and law school campuses in all 50 states. Our team has more conversations with this generation targeted by the abortion lobby than any other pro-life operation in the world, each week reaching more than 4 million across social media platforms and averaging 1.3 million video views. In addition to SFLA/SFLAction, PLG leads multiple initiatives to lead and serve the future of the pro-life movement including the Campaign for Abortion Free Cities, Standing With You, and the Demetree Institute for Pro-Life.