Supreme Court lets New Jersey anti-abortion group challenge subpoena in federal court

The Supreme Court gave First Choice Women’s Resource Centers a new path to fight a subpoena that sought nearly 5,000 donor names, internal fundraising materials, advertising files and personnel records, a move that could shape how nonprofits resist state investigations they say are politically targeted.

In a unanimous ruling on April 29, 2026, the justices let the faith-based pregnancy-center network pursue its constitutional challenge in federal court in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc. v. Platkin, the latest turn in a dispute that had already moved through federal district court, a state court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. The decision was procedural and did not resolve whether the subpoena itself is lawful.

The fight began when New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin issued the subpoena in November 2023 as part of an investigation into whether First Choice misled women or donors about abortions and other reproductive-health services. Court filings and case summaries say the demand reached back as far as 10 years and sought donor identities, internal materials and staff records. First Choice argued that disclosure would chill donations and burden speech and association rights protected by the First Amendment. The organization also said the investigation led it to remove staff-identifying videos from its YouTube channel.

Platkin said in a June 2025 statement that his office had issued a lawful subpoena and that nonprofits may not deceive or defraud New Jersey residents. He argued that First Choice had sued too soon and was trying to secure a special exception to ordinary procedural rules. The state’s position was that New Jersey was simply using its consumer-protection authority to examine possible deception, not punishing protected advocacy.

The case drew unusual cross-ideological attention because the American Civil Liberties Union backed First Choice on First Amendment grounds. The ACLU warned that subpoenas demanding donor information can chill protected association even when the government says it is pursuing a legitimate investigation. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on December 2, 2025, and the justices’ ruling now allows First Choice to press that argument in federal court before any final decision on the subpoena’s legality.

Beyond the anti-abortion context, the decision may matter for nonprofits across the political spectrum. If groups can move quickly into federal court when they claim donor disclosure or document demands threaten speech and association, state attorneys general and other regulators may face more resistance when seeking records tied to investigations of alleged deception. With crisis pregnancy centers expanding after the court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the dispute also lands at the center of a broader fight over how far states can go in demanding transparency before First Amendment protections come into play.