First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin: Oral Argument

Case Summary:First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin arises from a 2023 administrative subpoena issued by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin to First Choice, a Christian, pro‑life nonprofit that operates pregnancy centers and provides counseling, information about abortion, and abortion‑pill‑reversal services. The subpoena, issued under New Jersey consumer‑protection and charitable‑solicitation laws, demands the names of nearly 5,000 donors along with more than a decade of internal records, including solicitation materials, advertising, personnel information, complaint files, and documents substantiating medical and cost claims on First Choice’s websites, all based on alleged deceptive practices but without citing specific complaints; First Choice responded by suing in federal court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, claiming that the subpoena and the threat of enforcement chill its and its donors’ First Amendment rights, while the State has pursued enforcement in New Jersey courts. The issue before the Supreme Court was whether a state attorney general’s broad administrative subpoena to a nonprofit advocacy organization seeking years of internal documents and thousands of donor identities based on alleged deceptive practices violates the First Amendment by impermissibly burdening and chilling the organization’s and its supporters’ rights to free speech and expressive association, and if so, what constitutional standard governs such subpoenas