Supreme Court sides with NJ anti-abortion group over state inquiry

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In a rare unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with a New Jersey-based anti-abortion group on Wednesday, April 29 in its efforts to challenge a subpoena by the state Attorney General’s Office to disclose donor information.

The nine justices ruled that the subpoena violated the First Amendment rights of First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, since the court has long held that disclosing affiliation with an advocacy group could be a restraint on the freedom of association.

The conflict dates back to 2023 when Matt Platkin, New Jersey’s attorney general at the time, opened an investigation into First Choice, a religious nonprofit organization that has provided counseling and resources to pregnant women in New Jersey since 1985. It does not perform or refer pregnant women for abortions, according to its website.

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Among the documents demanded in a subpoena were the names, phone numbers, addresses, and places of employment of donors.

First Choice, which has locations in Montclair, Morristown, Newark and Jersey City, filed a lawsuit in federal court to prevent investigators from receiving donor information, arguing that it would discourage donors from associating with it by removing their anonymity.

Both a lower court and appellate court dismissed First Choice’s lawsuit, but the Supreme Court decided in June of 2025 to hear the case.

Platkin defended his subpoena

Platkin defended his decision last year, saying his office issued a “lawful subpoena in November 2023 to ensure that First Choice was complying with all relevant state laws.

“Non-profits, including crisis pregnancy centers, may not deceive or defraud residents in our state, and we may exercise our traditional investigative authority to ensure that they are not doing so — as we do to protect New Jerseyans from a range of harms,” he said in the statement.

Crisis pregnancy centers provide services to pregnant women with the goal of dissuading them from having an abortion. Such centers often do not clearly advertise their anti-abortion stance, and abortion rights advocates have called them deceptive.

The backdrop to this case is the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that had legalized abortion nationwide. It effectively allowed state legislatures to decide whether to outlaw abortions.

Not long after, Platkin’s office issued a consumer alert that warned the public that crisis pregnancy centers do not provide abortions and noted that such facilities “may also provide false or misleading information about abortion.” A year later the subpoena was issued.

But the question of whether the facilities acted deceptively was not before the Supreme Court. Rather, the case explored whether First Choice has the legal basis to bring a constitutional challenge to the subpoena in federal court, or if it must continue litigating the matter in state court, where the case is ongoing.

Among those celebrating the decision was the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, which said groups like First Choice should be able to challenge subpoenas that may be used to target them because of their stances on social issues.

“It is crucial for advocacy organizations — wherever they fall on the political spectrum — to have a legal path to fight retaliatory conduct by government officials,” Jeanne LoCicero, legal director of the group, said in a statement.

This article contains information from Reuters.