ADF to court: New Jersey AG must stop harassment of pro-life ministry

WHO: Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys

WHAT: Available for media interviews following oral arguments in Platkin v. First Choice Women’s Resource Centers

WHEN: Immediately following hearing, which begins at 10:00 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, Oct. 15

WHERE: U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, Trenton Division, Clarkson S. Fisher Building & U.S. Courthouse, Courtroom 5W, 402 East State Street, Trenton. To schedule an interview, contact ADF Media Relations Manager Bernadette Tasy at (480) 356-0324.

TRENTON, N.J. – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing a Christian, pro-life medical non-profit will be available for media interviews following oral arguments Tuesday at the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, Trenton Division, in Platkin v. First Choice Women’s Resource Centers. ADF attorneys are asking the court to halt New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin’s targeting of First Choice because of its faith-based, pro-life views and his demand that it identify its donors and produce up to 10 years of its internal, confidential documents. First Choice responded to the subpoena and produced documents, and ADF attorneys moved the federal court to uphold First Choice’s constitutional rights and stop the Attorney General’s attempt to obtain any further documents.

“First Choice Women’s Resource Centers fulfills a vital need in its community by providing free ultrasounds, STD testing, baby clothes, counseling, and much more,” said ADF Senior Counsel Lincoln Wilson, who will be arguing before the court. “New Jersey’s attorney general is making a political example of First Choice simply because it provides pro-life and religious alternatives to his extreme pro-abortion viewpoints. We are urging the court to protect First Choice from these burdensome demands and uphold its First Amendment rights.”

Platkin targeted First Choice with a broad, baseless, and burdensome subpoena that requires the organization to expend its limited resources to produce massive amounts of confidential documents or face judicial penalties. The attorney general does not refer to any evidence of wrongdoing to justify his demands.

ADF attorneys explain in the lawsuit, filed in December, that Platkin sought help from Planned Parenthood to draft his office’s consumer alert warning New Jerseyans about pregnancy centers. The suit argues that the attorney general’s demands violate the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and are designed to harass and hurt First Choice’s ministry of caring for women and their children.

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.

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