First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin

Court: U.S. Supreme Court

Date Filed: Aug. 28, 2025

Background: In 2023, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin subpoenaed First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, a faith-based nonprofit that provides pregnancy services, seeking information about the organization’s donors, advertisements, and medical personnel as part of an investigation. 

First Choice challenged the subpoena in federal court on First Amendment grounds, but the court twice dismissed the claims as unripe, concluding that they must first play out in state court. On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision.

First Choice petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, and the justices agreed to hear the case.  

Our Position: In a friend-of-the-court brief, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press urges the Supreme Court to reverse the Third Circuit and hold that speakers can seek immediate relief in federal court when they are subjected to retaliatory investigative demands. 

• Retaliatory investigative demands impose chilling burdens on the press.

• When retaliatory investigations burden the press, the First Amendment requires prompt access to a federal forum.

From the Brief: “Because the harms of a retaliatory investigative demand are felt immediately, the federal courthouse doors are open immediately.”