Supreme Court likely to rule in favor of abortion opponents in challenge to state investigation

WASHINGTON AP The Supreme Court seemed likely on Tuesday to side with a faith-based pregnancy center challenging an analysis into whether it misled people to discourage abortions The facilities often known as predicament pregnancy centers have been on the rise in the U S especially since the Supreme Court s conservative majority overturned abortion as a nationwide right in The bulk Republican-controlled states have since started enforcing bans or restrictions on abortion and particular have steered tax dollars to the centers They generally provide prenatal care and encourage women to carry pregnancies to term Numerous Democratic-aligned states have sought to protect abortion access and several have investigated whether pregnancy centers mislead women into thinking they offer abortions until it s too late to obtain them legally In New Jersey Democratic attorney general Matthew Platkin s consumer-protection division sent a subpoena to First Choice Women s Deposit Centers for information including about their donor First Choice pushed back arguing the study was baseless and the demand for donor lists threatened their First Amendment rights They tried to challenge the subpoena in federal court but a judge revealed the situation wasn t yet far enough along An appeals court agreed First Choice then turned to the Supreme Court where a majority of the justices seemed to agree that they should be able to challenge the subpoena in federal court You don t think it might have an affect on likely future donors to the organization to know that their name phone number address et cetera could be disclosed a dubious Chief Justice John Roberts questioned an attorney for New Jersey The state argued that the information would only have been used to ask donors whether they had been deceived about First Choice s services An attorney for New Jersey Sundeep Iyer explained free-speech rights aren t at hazard because the group has not even been required to turn over any information yet A court order is required to enforce it Conservatives on the court seemed skeptical as did liberal justice Elena Kagan An ordinary person one of the funders for this organization or any similar organization presented with this subpoena is not going to take that as very reassuring Kagan mentioned New Jersey also argued that a ruling in favor of First Choice could open the floodgates to similar lawsuits from any of the thousands of businesses that get similar subpoenas Federal courts would potentially be inundated Iyer commented An attorney for the Trump administration which weighed in to backing First Choice countered that any impact would be relatively small since the decision would only apply to groups with similar First Amendment arguments First Choice stated access to federal court is crucial in cases where establishment investigators are accused of misusing state power The American Civil Liberties Union supported the group saying that subpoenas seeking donor information can scare away supporters even before they re enforced Erin Hawley an attorney for the conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom reported subpoenas can hurt advocacy groups with unpopular points of view It is a broad non-ideological issue that really does transcend ideological boundaries she commented Aimee Huber executive director of First Choice disclosed she hopes other states would back off any investigations of similar pregnancy centers if the court rules in their favor The Supreme Court is expected to decide the matter in the coming months Source