Supreme Court agrees to hear NJ pregnancy center appeal of subpoena for donor records

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a New Jersey pregnancy center's appeal of a subpoena for its donor records.

First Choice Women's Resource Centers in New Jersey is seeking to block a 2023 subpoena from New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin (D) that requests the pregnancy center's information on donors, advertisements, and medical personnel, The Associated Press reported.

The subpoena has yet to be served as a state court judge refused Platkin's push to require the organization to turn over documents, telling the two sides to negotiate instead.

The organization's lawyers describe their client as a “faith-based, pro-life pregnancy center.” They challenged the subpoena in federal court, where a judge ruled that the case wasn’t yet far enough along to weigh in, to which an appeals court agreed.

In First Choice Women’s Resource Centers' appeal, the group claims that the effort to obtain donor information has chilled its First Amendment rights.

“State attorneys general on both sides of the political aisle have been accused of misusing this authority to issue demands against their ideological and political opponents,” the court filing reads. “Even if these accusations turn out to be false, it is important that a federal forum exists for suits challenging those investigative demands.”

New Jersey requested that the justices not hear the case, arguing that it is a lower-court controversy that doesn't require them to weigh in.

“The decision below is correct and does not have the impacts petitioner alleges,” state attorneys wrote.