The court ruled in favor of a New Jersey prolife pregnancy center.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a pro-life pregnancy center in New Jersey could sue the state to stop it from violating the organization’s First Amendment rights. Lower courts had sided with the New Jersey attorney general, who issued subpoenas for documents from the past decade, including information regarding the reversal of abortion drugs, identification of personnel, lists of ads and donor solicitation, and any organizations with which the pregnancy center partnered.
In its suit, the pregnancy center stated that the state attorney general targeted the organization “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.”
“An official demand for private donor information is enough to discourage reasonable individuals from associating with a group. It is enough to discourage groups from expressing dissident views. A government that chooses to make private donor information public may make the damage worse,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote. He also cited prior case law that stated “assurances of confidentiality… do not eliminate” the First Amendment injury caused by a demand for private member or donor information.
Justice Gorsuch concluded the ruling, “Since the 1950s, this Court has confronted one official demand after another like the Attorney General’s. Over and again, we have held those demands burden the exercise of First Amendment rights.”
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For the justices of the Supreme Court as they hand down decisions protecting the First Amendment.
- For circuit and district judges as they interpret the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Sources: The Supreme Court, Townhall, Life News
