US supreme court sides with anti-abortion centers in New Jersey case

The US supreme court sided on Wednesday with the operator of Christian faith-based anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers” in New Jersey that is trying to impede a state investigation into whether the facilities engage in deceptive practices.

The justices, in a unanimous decision, revived a federal lawsuit brought by First Choice Women’s Resource Centers challenging a 2023 subpoena from the state attorney general seeking information on the organization’s donors and doctors. A lower court had thrown out the lawsuit.

First Choice, which has five locations in New Jersey, had appealed against the lower court’s determination that its federal lawsuit challenging then Democratic attorney general Matthew Platkin’s subpoena was premature in light of ongoing state court litigation over the matter.

The First Choice facilities seek to steer women away from having abortions. Platkin issued the subpoena as part of a state investigation into whether First Choice deceived donors and potential clients into falsely believing the facilities offered abortions and other reproductive healthcare services in violation of a state consumer-protection law and other statutes.

The subpoena sought First Choice’s internal records, including the names of its doctors and donors. First Choice has said this caused some donors to reconsider giving to the group.

The question of whether the facilities acted deceptively was not before the supreme court. Rather, the case explored if First Choice had 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.

Donald Trump’s administration backed First Choice in the case.

Days before its records were due to be handed over in 2023, First Choice sued Platkin in New Jersey federal court, arguing that the subpoena chilled its first amendment rights to free speech and free association.

The supreme court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, in 2022 overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that had legalized abortion nationwide.

After that decision, 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”.

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.

First Choice was represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group that has brought other cases on behalf of anti-abortion plaintiffs.

After First Choice’s federal lawsuit, Platkin sought to enforce the subpoena in state court. A state judge in 2024 declined First Choice’s request to quash the subpoena for the time being, ordering the parties to negotiate a narrower subpoena. The judge said that the constitutional issues could be litigated going forward.

In the federal case, US district judge Michael Shipp dismissed First Choice’s complaint, finding that its federal claims were premature because it could continue to make its constitutional claims in the state court and did not face any immediate threat of being held in contempt.

The Philadelphia-based third US circuit court of appeals in a 2-1 decision in 2024 upheld Shipp’s ruling, prompting First Choice to appeal to the supreme court. The supreme court heard arguments in the case in December.