U.S. bishops back pregnancy centers in Supreme Court case as state demands donor lists

CNA Staff, Sep 5, 2025 / 12:30 pm

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is backing a coalition of New Jersey pregnancy centers as they ask the U.S. Supreme Court to halt a state investigation into their donor lists and other sensitive documents.

First Choice Women’s Resource Centers is asking the high court to block a demand from New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin to turn over extensive donor lists with identifying information. The prosecutor is demanding the records as part of an investigation into compliance with “consumer protection” laws.

In their amicus filing at the Supreme Court, the USCCB argued that compelling the donor disclosures would negatively affect groups beyond the pregnancy centers, including churches. The bishops alleged it would hollow out the “long-established protection of religious autonomy” established by the high court.

Compelling donor lists would “pressure a church to change the way it raises funds and maintains its financial records” and would “reveal private information about a church’s internal operations,” the bishops said.

“Coercive tactics could be used against religious groups of all creeds, social views, and political persuasions,” the bishops wrote. “Wherever a particular group’s religious calling takes it outside the predominant ethic and mores of the day, it will be at risk of similar attempts to interfere, redirect, chill, or quash.”

The USCCB argued that financial donations constitute an “act of speech” and of religious expression. 

“When a state compels a religious organization to disclose its donor lists, it assails nearly every First Amendment right with a single blow,” it said.

The bishops urged the Supreme Court to block Platkin’s subpoena efforts and “affirm and strengthen its precedents protecting religious exercise and association.”

The U.S. bishops in their filing joined a broad coalition of advocacy groups and associations in opposing the state attorney general’s investigation, including the U.S. government, multiple members of Congress, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Democrats for Life, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, the Second Amendment Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, the state of Florida, and the 2001-era internet trade association NetChoice.

Erin Hawley, a senior attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing the pregnancy centers before the Supreme Court, said in a press release that the legal group was “grateful for the diverse voices” coming out in opposition to the New Jersey prosecutor’s investigation.

“The Constitution protects First Choice and its donors from demands by a hostile state official to disclose their identities, and First Choice is entitled to vindicate those rights in federal court,” Hawley said.