By Marie Tasy
Today the Supreme Court stood up for pregnancy centers and for every American who supports them.
In a unanimous 9 to 0 ruling, the Court sided with First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, a faith-based nonprofit that has served pregnant women in New Jersey since 1985. The decision, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, held that First Choice has the right to challenge the New Jersey Attorney General’s demand for its donor list in federal court.
In 2023, the Attorney General’s office sent First Choice a subpoena demanding the names, addresses, phone numbers, and employers of virtually every donor who had given to the group over several years. This was done despite the fact that the office had received zero public complaints about First Choice. The organization pushed back, arguing that forcing a pro-life group to hand over its donor list violates the First Amendment.
New Jersey Right to Life was proud to file a brief supporting First Choice. This case was about whether the government can use subpoenas to find out who supports causes it disagrees with and then use that information to intimidate them into silence.
Justice Gorsuch wrote that without the right to associate freely, “no two men could safely share the same soapbox, no two women the same church. The government could reduce any assembly to a party of one.”
The Court also made clear that the harm begins the moment a subpoena arrives. Donors “would reasonably fear disclosure and hesitate to associate,” and organizations would be pressured to stop speaking out. The threat alone is enough to cause real harm.
The donors themselves said so under oath. Each stated they “would have been less likely to donate to First Choice” had they known their names might be turned over to the Attorney General. The Supreme Court agreed that is a real injury.
The case now goes back to federal district court, where First Choice will argue that the subpoena is unconstitutional. New Jersey Right to Life will be with them every step of the way.
Today, all nine Justices agreed on a fundamental point: when government action targets them, pregnancy centers have the right to defend themselves in federal court. The First Amendment safeguards their mission and their ability to serve. No subpoena can override those constitutional protections.
