SCOTUS rules that First Choice Women’s Resource Centers can challenge NJ attorney general’s subpoena in federal court
In a win for pregnancy help and the First Amendment the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that First Choice Women’s Resources Centers can challenge in federal court a subpoena issued by the New Jersey attorney general seeking donor information and other confidential documents.
The justices rule 9-0 that the First Amendment protects the pregnancy help network’s donor information, according to legal non-profit Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents First Choice.
Former New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin subpoenaed First Choice Women’s Resource Centers in 2023 to disclose names, phone numbers, addresses, and places of employment of many of its donors, along with up to 10 years of its internal confidential documents. The subpoena’s purported rationale was a civil investigation into possible violation of the state’s fraud act. Platkin has not produced a complaint from the public about First Choice.
Platkin left office in January 2026 and was succeeded by Janet Davenport, making the case now First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Davenport.
First Choice Women’s Resource Centers is a faith-based pregnancy center network providing medical services in New Jersey that has provided pregnancy help to women and families facing unplanned pregnancies since 1985, serving over 36,000 women in that time.
The Supreme Court’s opinion was that Plakin’s subpoena harms First Choice Women’s Resources Centers First Amendment freedom of association:
“An official demand for private donor information is enough to discourage reasonable individuals from associating with a group. From its allegations and declarations, and given our many and longstanding precedents in the area and reasonable inferences about third party behavior, First Choice has established that the Attorney General’s demand for private donor information injures the group’s First Amendment associational rights.”
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Platkin’s subpoena has been considered by pro-life advocates to be coercive and harassment based on religious and pro-life views, as well as an attempt to chill First Choice’s First Amendment freedoms - and by extension those of pregnancy help organizations nationwide.
Heartbeat International, the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. and globally, had filed an amicus brief in the case. First Choice is among Heartbeat’s nearly 4,000 affiliate locations.
Heartbeat argued in its brief that First Choice has a right to pursue the case in federal court, that Platkin’s subpoena constituted political “lawfare,” and its demand for the private communications of out-of-state national associations “chills speech and association far beyond the borders of New Jersey.”
Heartbeat International welcomed the Supreme Court’s April 29 ruling protecting pregnancy help organizations’ constitutional rights.
“Today’s 9-0 decision is a powerful and unanimous affirmation that constitutional freedoms do not disappear simply because someone holds pro-life or Christian convictions,” said Heartbeat International President Jor-El Godsey. “Every single Justice of the United States Supreme Court stood on the side of First Choice Women’s Resource Centers and against government overreach that sought to intimidate and silence faith-based pregnancy help organizations.”
Tweet This: Every single Supreme Court Justice stood on the side of First Choice Women’s Resource Centers and against government overreach.
“The Supreme Court’s unanimous 9-0 decision sends a clear legal message,” Heartbeat General Counsel Danielle White said. “The government cannot evade constitutional scrutiny by hiding behind investigatory subpoenas. The Court today rightly recognized that the harm begins the moment the government uses its power to chill speech, intimidate donors, and target ministries based on their beliefs.”
Platkin has a history of promoting abortion access and animus toward pregnancy help centers, establishing a “reproductive rights strike force” to promote abortion access in 2022, and issuing a consumer alert against pregnancy centers for not providing abortion.
Republicans in the New Jersey Assembly filed articles of impeachment against Platkin in March of 2025 for targeting pregnancy centers for investigation.
Representatives from First Choice and ADF also praised the Supreme Court’s decision.
“For more than two years, Attorney General Platkin targeted First Choice with aggressive demands for sensitive documents, including our donors’ identities,” said First Choice Executive Director Aimee Huber. “He has gone to great lengths to frustrate the important work we do—work that has made a tangible, life-saving difference for tens of thousands of New Jersey women and their children.”
ADF Senior Counsel Erin Hawley said, “In this resounding victory, the Supreme Court held to its long-standing precedent of recognizing that the Constitution protects First Choice and its donors from demands by a hostile state official to disclose donor identities and contact information.”
Godsey remarked further on the implications of the Supreme Court decision for First Choice and other pregnancy help organizations.
“This ruling makes clear that no attorney general, no matter how politically motivated, can weaponize the power of the state to punish those who protect life and serve women with compassion,” he said. “We celebrate this victory not only for First Choice, but for every pregnancy help organization, donor, and ministry across the nation that deserves the freedom to live out its mission without fear.”
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
