The Liberty Daily 
(WND)—The attorney general in New Jersey, continuing the state’s long-running war against pro-life centers, is now insisting that a state court rule quickly in a fight over a subpoena, and to beat the federal courts to the punch in the fight.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, a Christian, pro-life, medical nonprofit that serves pregnant mothers, mothers of newborns and fathers, has grounds to challenge the state subpoena for confidential donor details in federal court.
But the fight started in state court, and deputy attorney general Lauren E. Van Driesen has told Lisa Adubato, a judge in Essex County, to move quickly on the dispute inside the state court system.
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The letter to the judge said the state court “should now proceed to resolve the enforceability of that subpoena,” a decision that could be thrown aside completely when the federal courts do rule.
Van Driesen noted the state court stayed the proceedings because of the appeal to the Supreme Court, but that stay now is ended.
“There is no basis for this court to stay its hand while the federal-court litigation proceeds simultaneously,” Van Driesen charged.
The issue, of course, is one that cannot be reversed later. If the state obtains the details about First Choice donors, it will have that information no matter the eventual results from a federal court.
One of the factors in the fight is that a state demand for identifying information about donors, a governmental oversight, offers a “chilling” effect on free speech and free association, by discouraging people who might want to donate but don’t want their details obtained by authorities.
The letter claims “state courts are equally competent” to federal courts to resolve “federal constitutional arguments.”
Eric Hawley, an ADF lawyer who has worked on the First Choice case, said, “New Jersey’s attorney general is doubling down on her predecessor’s hostile crusade to keep First Choice from vindicating its First Amendment rights in federal court.
“Just one day after the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed that her office’s donor demands burden the ministry’s First Amendment rights, Attorney General Davenport requested that the state court fast-track its enforcement proceedings to preempt the federal court’s review. That move disregards the Supreme Court’s ruling and underscores the stark reality of this case: For more than two years, New Jersey state officials have targeted First Choice simply because they dislike its pro-life views. But this week, the Supreme Court sent a clear message: First Choice is entitled to its day in federal court.”
New Jersey wildly claims it cannot protect consumers from “deception” about abortion services, which First Choice does not offer, without “requiring pro-life pregnancy centers to identify donors.”
The unanimous opinion from the nine justices, including all three liberals, was that the pro-life center had grounds to pursue a case in federal court.
“Since the 1950s, this court has confronted one official demand after another like the Attorney General’s,” Justice Neil Gorsuch concluded for the court. “Over and again, we have held those demands burden the exercise of First Amendment rights.”
Gorsuch warned, “Strip away the ability of individuals to work together free from governmental oversight and intrusion, and the freedom to associate may become no freedom at all—individuals deterred, groups diminished, and their protected advocacy suppressed.”
State officials had publicly warned about the “deception” of the pro-life centers based on the fact they did not offer, or refer, for abortion.
WorldNetDaily reported the state is demanding the names, phone numbers, addresses and places of employment for donors.
Ex-State Attorney General Matthew Platkin had launched the present dispute by demanding a coercive subpoena, insisting on full access to the centers’ private information.
First Choice was targeted by the state’s “Reproductive Rights Strike Force,” a militant move by the state to promote abortion and attack those who oppose it.
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