USCCB, ACLU file Supreme Court briefs on behalf of NJ crisis pregnancy centers

September 04, 2025

Organizations with significantly different purposes—including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the ACLU—have filed amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs on behalf of five faith-based New Jersey pregnancy centers.

In First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin, the pregnancy centers filed suit against New Jersey’s attorney general after he issued a subpoena for donor records.

Attorney General Matthew Platkin “demanded that First Choice disclose the names, phone numbers, addresses, and places of employment of many of its donors, plus up to 10 years of its internal confidential documents,” the Alliance for Defending Freedom (ADF), which is representing the pregnancy centers, said in a statement.

ADF added:

First Choice tried to challenge the demand in federal court, but those courts said that First Choice must pursue its federal claims in state court first. ADF is asking the Supreme Court to hold that civil rights plaintiffs do not need to raise challenges to state investigations in state court before they can bring federal claims—the same standard that applies to any other person suffering constitutional injury at the hands of a state official.

“If state attorneys general are free to demand donor lists from religious groups, the autonomy and mission of any number of religious organizations could very likely fall victim to state incursion,” the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops argued in its brief. “The Court should put an end to such efforts.”

“In so doing, this Court can send a powerful message that secular authorities may not wield the arrow of compelled donor disclosure to interfere with a religious organization’s autonomy, suppress the speech of the group’s members or donors, or interfere with the associative rights of its supporters all at once,” the bishops’ conference concluded.

 

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Further information:

• BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE (USCCB)
• Diverse coalition supports NJ pregnancy centers at US Supreme Court (Alliance Defending Freedom)