(ADF) Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed suit against New Jersey’s attorney general Wednesday on behalf of a Christian, pro-life, medical nonprofit that serves pregnant mothers, mothers of newborns, and fathers.

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin selectively targeted First Choice Women’s Resource Centers based on its religious speech and pro-life views with a wide-ranging, unfounded, and burdensome subpoena that requires the organization to expend its limited resources to produce extensive documentation or face judicial sanctions. The attorney general does not refer to any substantive evidence of wrongdoing to justify his onerous demands.

“It’s unlawful for New Jersey’s attorney general to use the authority of his office to harm those with whom he disagrees,” said ADF Senior Counsel Lincoln Wilson. “Attorney General Platkin has aligned himself with Planned Parenthood’s pro-abortion mission and even enlisted its help to target pro-life pregnancy centers like our client First Choice. The U.S. Constitution protects First Choice Ministry’s right to freely speak its beliefs, freely exercise its faith, freely associate with like-minded individuals and organizations, and continue to provide its free services in a caring and compassionate environment to women and men facing difficult pregnancy circumstances.”

As ADF attorneys explain in the lawsuit, Platkin sought help from Planned Parenthood to draft his office’s consumer alert warning New Jerseyans about pregnancy centers. The attorney general’s demands violate the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and are designed to leverage the threat of sanctions under New Jersey law to frustrate First Choice’s pro-life ministry.

Tweet This: “The U.S. Constitution protects First Choice Ministry’s right to freely speak its beliefs, freely exercise its faith …” – ADF 

ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit, First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, Trenton Vicinage.

In Washington state, ADF attorneys recently filed a similar lawsuit against that state’s attorney general.

Editor’s note: This article was published by Alliance Defending Freedom and is reprinted with permission.

Update: 

On February 26th, ADF filed a petition with the United States Supreme Court, asking it to require a federal district court to hear its case against the state’s attorney general. “Congress has given federal courts the duty to hear and decide cases where government officials have allegedly violated constitutionally protected rights,” ADF Senior Counsel Lincoln Wilson stated in a press release. “But in New Jersey, after the attorney general targeted and harassed a Christian, pro-life, medical nonprofit, the district court has refused to hear this important case unless it litigates in state court first.” More

On January 16, 2024, ADF filed a notice of appeal with the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in response to a lower court’s January 11th dismissal of the case.   ADF attorneys also filed a motion for injunction pending appeal asking the court to halt for the duration of the appeal Platkin’s wide-ranging, unfounded, and burdensome subpoena that requires First Choice to expend its limited resources to produce extensive documentation or face judicial sanctions.  Read ADF’s statement

On January 11, 2024, U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp denied ADF’s motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction and dismissed the complaint without prejudice on a technicality.  The Judge noted that ADF may file an Amended Complaint alleging the same claims on a non-emergent basis.