Supreme Court unanimously sides with pro-life group suing NJ over demand to hand over donor records
By Michael Gryboski - Posted at The Christian Post:
The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that New Jersey was wrong to try to force a pro-life pregnancy care center to disclose its private donor information, a violation of its First Amendment rights.The Supreme Court issued a decision on Wednesday morning in the case of First Choice Women's Resource Centers, Inc. v. Matthew J. Platkin, Attorney General of New Jersey.
Justice Neil Gorsuch authored the 9-0 court opinion, clarifying that the justices “are not asked to decide the merits of First Choice’s federal lawsuit, only whether it may proceed.”
“First Choice has established that the Attorney General’s demand for private donor information injures the group’s First Amendment associational rights,” wrote Gorsuch. “The Attorney General does not dispute much of this.”
“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.”
