CV NEWS FEED // The US Supreme Court has approved a motion by New Jersey Attorney General Mathiew Platkin to subpoena a network of the state’s pro-life pregnancy centers for its private donor information.
According to a Christian Post report, the court denied on May 13 a request Alliance Defending Freedom filed in April on behalf of First Choice Women’s Resource Centers to stop the subpoena, which would require it to disclose the information.
“The Attorney General’s broad, unlawful Subpoena and the state-court enforcement proceeding are themselves a chill on First Choice’s speech, religion, and associational freedoms,” the request stated, continuing:
And in an environment in which pregnancy centers ‘have been subjected to bomb threats, protests, stalking, and physical violence’ … the Attorney General’s sweeping demands threaten not just the freedoms but the safety and support of First Choice’s donors, volunteers, and associates.
Platkin first subpoenaed the pro-life centers last November for its donor lists and private correspondence to determine “whether the network was violating the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.”
First Choice filed a complaint against Platkin in November, stating that the subpoena was unconstitutional. A US District judge denied their complaint in January, concluding:
This Court cannot yet know whether the state court tasked by the New Jersey state legislature with overseeing subpoena enforcement proceedings like this will, in fact, enforce the Subpoena in its current form; this matter is not ripe for resolution because no actual or imminent injury has occurred.
The Attorney General also signed a letter last year accusing the centers of spreading “misinformation and harm,” by misleading women and “delaying access to critical, time-sensitive reproductive healthcare.”
