First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Davenport

Summary

First Choice Women’s Resource Centers is a Christian, pro-life, medical nonprofit that serves pregnant mothers, mothers of newborns, and fathers. New Jersey’s attorney general selectively targeted the nonprofit based on its religious speech and pro-life views with a wide-ranging, unfounded, and burdensome subpoena that requires the organization to expend its limited resources to produce extensive documentation or face judicial sanctions. The attorney general does not refer to any substantive evidence of wrongdoing to justify his onerous demands.

Case Timeline

November 2023: Attorney General Platkin issued an unlawful subpoena demanding that First Choice turn over up to 10 years’ worth of documents, including its statements on abortion pill reversal, information it provided to third parties, documents identifying personnel and donors, copies of every First Choice solicitation and advertisement, and information related to outside organizations that First Choice works with.
December 2023: ADF attorneys filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the unjust subpoena.
January 2024: The federal district court dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction, and First Choice appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.
February 2024: ADF attorneys filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to act swiftly by requiring a federal district court to do its duty and hear the case. The U.S. Supreme Court denied the petition.
May 2024: ADF attorneys participated in oral argument in state court on the enforceability of the attorney general’s subpoena. The state court held the subpoena enforceable as a matter of state law and declined to rule on First Choice’s federal constitutional objections, which it said were unripe. First Choice appealed.
July 2024: The 3rd Circuit remanded First Choice’s federal case to the district court for a decision on injunctive relief.
September 2024: ADF attorneys participated in oral argument at state court, asking the court to pause further compliance with the subpoena while a federal court considers the constitutional claims in the case. The state court declined to rule on the merits while First Choice’s appeal was pending.
October 2024: ADF attorneys participated in oral argument at a federal district court, asking the court to halt Attorney General Platkin’s harassment of First Choice.
November 2024: After receiving an unfavorable ruling from the district court, ADF attorneys appealed to the 3rd Circuit.
December 2024: The 3rd Circuit ruled against First Choice.
January 2025: ADF attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize First Choice’s right to file a federal lawsuit against Attorney General Platkin.
June 2025: The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
December 2025: ADF Senior Counsel Erin Hawley presents oral arguments for the Supreme Court.
April 2026: In a unanimous 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of First Choice and reversed the 3rd Circuit’s ruling, affirming that First Choice has a right to bring its claims in federal court.
June 2026: ADF files an amended complaint and renewed motion for preliminary injunction in federal district court.