Locke CEO praises SCOTUS ruling upholding donor privacy

https://www.carolinajournal.com/locke-ceo-praises-scotus-ruling-upholding-donor-privacy/

Publish Date: 2026-04-29 14:40:00

The head of the John Locke Foundation praised the nation’s highest court Wednesday for its unanimous decision in a donor privacy case from New Jersey.

In First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Davenport, the high court ruled that a faith-based pregnancy center had legal standing to make a First Amendment challenge to a subpoena from the New Jersey attorney general.

When the case started in 2023, then-AG Matthew Platkin sent a subpoena seeking First Choice’s donor lists and other information.

“Today’s unanimous Supreme Court decision is a major victory for donor privacy and freedom of association,” said Locke CEO Donald Bryson. “The Court made clear that government demands for private donor information can chill First Amendment rights even before those demands are enforced.”

“North Carolina lawmakers understood this principle when they enacted the Personal Privacy Protection Act over Governor Stein’s veto in July 2025,” Bryson added. “That law protects the privacy of nonprofit donors, members, volunteers, and supporters from government overreach.”

“Donor privacy is not a partisan issue; it is a constitutional safeguard for every American who wants to support a cause without fear of intimidation or retaliation,” Bryson said.

“A federal law — 42 U. S. C. §1983 — authorizes suits against any person who, under color of state law, deprives another of his federal constitutional rights,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the unanimous Supreme Court. “First Choice filed a complaint under that statute, arguing, among other things, that the Attorney General’s demand for information about its donors violated its First Amendment rights.”

“Specifically, First Choice observed that the First Amendment ‘prohibits the government from discouraging people from associating with others’ ‘in pursuit of many political, social, economic, educational, religious, and cultural ends,’” Gorsuch added. “And,…

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