On April 29, all nine justices of the Supreme Court sided with First Choice Women's Resource Centers, a pro-life crisis pregnancy nonprofit, in First Choice Women's Resource Centers, Inc. v. Davenport, ruling that the organization has the right to challenge a sweeping government subpoena in federal court. The decision is a significant win for First Choice, and for the First Amendment rights of nonprofits broadly.
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court delivered a major victory for life and freedom of speech, finding that the subpoena raises serious First Amendment concerns that deserve a hearing in federal court.
First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc., is a religious nonprofit that has provided counseling and resources to pregnant women in New Jersey since 1985. Based on the understanding that life begins at conception, the group does not provide abortions or abortion referrals.
Pregnancy centers like First Choice at times face targeted harassment from government officials over the fact that they do not offer abortions, even as they provide millions of dollars a year in free services for women, children, and families -- such as clothing, housing, counseling and other services.
In 2022, New Jersey’s vocally pro-choice then-Attorney General Matthew Platkin created a “Reproductive Rights Strike Force” that issued a consumer alert accusing groups like First Choice of misleading people about their services. As part of that effort, his office subpoenaed First Choice, demanding not just donor names, but phone numbers, home addresses, places of employment, internal communications, advertising materials, and a decade's worth of documents across 28 categories.
No specific complaint or evidence of wrongdoing triggered the demand.
The stated rationale? Platkin's office wanted to contact a “representative sample” of donors to find out whether they had been “misled” about First Choice's mission — essentially suggesting that some donors must have given money to a pregnancy center by mistake, thinking it offered abortions.
Why it matters
First Choice refused to comply and sued in federal court, arguing the subpoena itself was already chilling donors’ willingness to give, creating a concrete First Amendment injury that didn't require waiting for the state to enforce the subpoena first.
Lower courts disagreed and dismissed the case. The Supreme Court reversed that, 9-0.
Writing for the Court, Justice Gorsuch wrote that this decision is in line with decades of preceding cases that present an attack on the First Amendment and freedom of speech:
This Court has long held that “compelled disclosure of affiliation with groups engaged in advocacy may constitute as effective a restraint on freedom of association” … and thus has repeatedly subjected demands for private donor or member information to heightened First Amendment scrutiny…
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. Disputing none of these precedents but seeking ways around them, the Attorney General has offered a variety of arguments. Some are old, some are new, but none succeeds.
The court’s conclusion? “The Attorney General’s subpoena … has caused [First Choice] to suffer an actual and ongoing injury to its First Amendment rights by deterring donors from associating with it.” While this doesn’t settle the case, it does mean that First Choice has valid cause to challenge the subpoena in lower courts.
The scope of the win gathered an unusual coalition. Even the left-leaning ACLU celebrated the ruling as a free-speech victory that protects all nonprofits against government overreach.
What’s ahead
The case now returns to federal district court, where the actual First Amendment merits will be argued.
The new New Jersey AG, Jen Davenport, has already signaled the state intends to keep fighting, calling this “a procedural decision” that doesn't resolve whether the subpoena was lawful.
The case isn’t settled yet, but the future looks promising for First Choice—and for all who value freedom of speech and the rights of those involved with crisis pregnancy centers.
