Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ)—who, with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), led a bicameral amicus brief defending the rights of First Choice Pregnancy Resource Centers—welcomed the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision this morning in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Davenport, handing the faith-based pregnancy resource center network a victory and finding that a subpoena by the New Jersey Attorney General had violated their constitutional right to association.

                Smith, Co-Chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, said: “I am very grateful for the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Davenport, which defends the ability of pro-life pregnancy care centers to fulfill their missions of providing life-affirming, compassionate care to mothers and their precious children—and to do so free from government suppression and intimidation.

                “Pregnancy care centers are absolute oases of love and compassion for all who seek their services; unfortunately, time and time again, they have been unfairly maligned and disparaged by radical pro-abortion state governments, especially and including my home state of New Jersey.

                “Today’s unanimous decision by the Supreme Court affirms pregnancy care centers’ constitutionally-protected freedom of association and protects them from intimidation and harassment by hostile state governments. It sends a clear message to New Jersey and other states that this kind of bullying and infringement of pregnancy care centers’ First Amendment rights will be given no sanction.”

                By way of background, First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Davenport—formerly known as First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin, named after former New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin—arose when the former Attorney General subpoenaed First Choice for its donor records.

                First Choice then challenged this unwanted subpoena on the grounds that it violated their First Amendment rights and that they had been viciously targeted by the pro-abortion state of New Jersey because of their life-affirming mission and religious speech.

                In the Supreme Court’s opinion, delivered by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Justices find that Platkin’s subpoena and the disclosure of private donor information does in fact infringe upon First Choice’s freedom of association by functionally discouraging future donors from supporting First Choice or associating with it entirely.

                The Justices write, “From its allegations and declarations, and given our many and longstanding precedents… First Choice has established that the Attorney General’s demand for private donor information injures the group’s First Amendment associational rights.

                “Since the 1950s, this Court has confronted one official demand after another like the Attorney General’s. Over and again, we have held those demands burden the exercise of First Amendment rights,” the Justices conclude.

                In addition to his longstanding support of First Choice in this case, Smith is the author of the Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act of 2025 (HR 2226), federal legislation to prohibit federal, state and local governments from discriminating against the nearly 2,700 pregnancy care centers across the United States.

                Smith’s bill will protect the centers by strengthening federal conscience laws, prohibiting states from requiring pregnancy care centers to be complicit in abortion promotion, and identifying mechanisms for relief, including compensatory damages.

###