Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
First Choice Women's Resource Centers, Inc. v. Jennifer Davenport, Attorney General of New Jersey
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, No. 24-3124 · judgment December 12, 2024
Before the decision, about 7.2× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a petition filed soon after the judgment below, a Third Circuit decision below, and a circuit split argued in the petition, and down for a state or local-government respondent.
Question presented
New Jersey's Attorney General served an investigatory subpoena on First Choice Women's Resource Centers, Inc., a faith-based pregnancy center, demanding that it turn over most of its donors' names. First Choice challenged the Subpoena under 42 U.S.C. 1983 in federal court, and the Attorney General filed a subsequent suit to enforce it in state court. The state court granted the Attorney General's motion to enforce the Subpoena but expressly did not decide First Choice's federal constitutional challenges. The Attorney General then moved in state court to sanction First Choice. Meanwhile, the district court held that First Choice's constitutional claims were not ripe in federal court. The Third Circuit affirmed in a divided per curiam decision. Judge Bibas would have held the action ripe as indistinguishable from. Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Banta, 594 U.S. 595, 618-19 (2021). But the majority concluded First Choice's claims were not yet ripe because First Choice could litigate its constitutional claims in state court. In doing so, the majority followed the rule of the Fifth Circuit and split from the Ninth Circuit. It did not address the likely loss of a federal forum once the state court rules on the federal constitutional issues. The question presented is: Where the subject of a state investigatory demand has established a reasonably objective chill of its First Amendment rights, is a federal court in a first-filed action deprived of jurisdiction because those rights must be adjudicated in state court?
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Erin Morrow Hawley
Alliance Defending Freedom
For respondent
Jeremy Michael Feigenbaum
Office of the New Jersey Attorney General
Case
Conference history
Distributed for 10 conferences
Amicus briefs
8 cert-stage · 42 merits
(39 supporting pet./neither, 3 respondent)
Argument & decision
Argued December 2, 2025 — Erin M. Hawley · Sundeep Iyer. Audio and transcript
Decided April 29, 2026. Opinion by Gorsuch.
Proceedings
- Jun 01 2026Judgment Issued.
- Apr 29 2026Judgment REVERSED and case REMANDED. Gorsuch, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.
- Mar 02 2026Letter pursuant to Rule 35.3 from counsel for respondent filed.
- Dec 02 2025Argued. For petitioner: Erin M. Hawley, Washington, D. C.; and Vivek Suri, Assistant to the Solicitor General, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C. (for United States, as amicus curiae.) For respondent: Sundeep Iyer, Chief Counsel to the Attorney General, Trenton, N. J.
- Nov 13 2025Reply of First Choice Women's Resource Centers, Inc. not accepted for filing. (Corrected brief to be printed--November 13, 2025)
- Nov 13 2025Reply of petitioner First Choice Women's Resource Centers, Inc. filed. (Distributed)
- Nov 10 2025Motion of the Solicitor General for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae and for divided argument GRANTED.
- Oct 28 2025Electronic record received from the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey on file with the Clerk.
- Oct 22 2025CIRCULATED
- Oct 21 2025Record requested from the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
- Oct 21 2025Brief amici curiae of Massachusetts, et al. filed. (Distributed)
- Oct 21 2025Brief amici curiae of Local Government Legal Center, et al. filed. (Distributed)
- Oct 20 2025Brief amicus curiae of Federation of State Medical Boards filed.
- Oct 17 2025SET FOR ARGUMENT on Tuesday, December 2, 2025.
- Oct 14 2025Brief of respondent Matthew Platkin, in his official capacity as Attorney General of New Jersey filed.
- Aug 29 2025Motion of the Solicitor General for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae and for divided argument filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of United States filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amici curiae of Heartbeat International, Inc., et al. filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amici curiae of Advancing American Freedom, et al. filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of Liberty Justice Center filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of Americans United for Life filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amici curiae of Members of Congress filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amici curiae of Save the Storks, et al. filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of The Equal Protection Project filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amici curiae of Professor O. Carter Snead, et al. filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of Robertson Center for Constitutional Law filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of NetChoice filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of Mountain States Legal Foundation filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of National Taxpayers Union Foundation filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of Annunciation House, Inc. filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amici curiae of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, et al. filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of United States Conference of Catholic Bishops filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amici curiae of America’s Future, et al. filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of Institute for Free Speech filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amici curiae of Anonymous Donors to Pregnancy Resource Centers filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amici curiae of A Woman's Concern, Inc., et al. filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of People United for Privacy Foundation filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of American Legislative Exchange Council filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amici curiae of Manhattan Institute, et al. filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amici curiae of Democrats for Life of America, et al. filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of Washington Legal Foundation filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amici curiae of Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, et al. filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of Pacific Legal Foundation filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amici curiae of Florida, et al. filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amici curiae of Christian Legal Society, et al. filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of Second Amendment Foundation filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amici curiae of Care Net Pregnancy Center Of Paradise, et al. filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed.
- Aug 28 2025Brief amicus curiae of Hand of Hope Pregnancy Center filed.
- Aug 27 2025Brief amicus curiae of Buckeye Institute filed.
- Aug 27 2025Brief amicus curiae of Americans for Prosperity Foundation filed.
- Aug 26 2025Brief amicus curiae of Samaritan's Purse filed.
- Aug 22 2025Brief amici curiae of New Jersey Family Policy Center, et al. filed.
- Aug 21 2025Brief of petitioner First Choice Women's Resource Centers, Inc. filed.
- Aug 21 2025Joint appendix filed. (Statement of costs filed)
- Jul 22 2025Motion to further extend the time to file the briefs on the merits granted. The time to file the joint appendix and petitioner's brief on the merits is further extended to and including August 21, 2025. The time to file respondent's brief on the merits is further extended to and including October 14, 2025.
- Jul 16 2025Motion for a further extension of time to file the briefs on the merits filed.
- Jun 24 2025Motion to extend the time within which to file briefs on the merits granted. The time to file the joint appendix and petitioner's brief on the merits is extended to and including August 7, 2025. The time to file respondent's brief on the merits is extended to and including September 15, 2025.
- Jun 18 2025Motion for an extension of time within which to file the briefs on the merits filed.
- Jun 16 2025Petition GRANTED.
- Jun 09 2025DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 6/12/2025.
- Jun 02 2025DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 6/5/2025.
- May 27 2025DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/29/2025.
- May 19 2025DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/22/2025.
- May 12 2025DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/15/2025.
- Apr 28 2025DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/2/2025.
- Apr 21 2025DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 4/25/2025.
- Apr 14 2025DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 4/17/2025.
- Mar 31 2025DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 4/4/2025.
- Mar 26 2025Rescheduled.
- Mar 12 2025DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/28/2025.
- Mar 11 2025Reply of petitioner First Choice Women's Resource Centers, Inc. filed. (Distributed)
- Feb 24 2025Brief amici curiae of Pennsylvania Pregnancy Wellness Collaborative, et al. filed.
- Feb 24 2025Brief of respondent Matthew Platkin in opposition filed.
- Feb 24 2025Brief amici curiae of The Manhattan Institute, et al. filed.
- Feb 24 2025Brief amicus curiae of Second Amendment Foundation filed.
- Feb 24 2025Brief amicus curiae of Annunciation House, Inc. filed.
- Feb 24 2025Brief amici curiae of Advancing American Freedom, et al. filed.
- Feb 24 2025Brief amicus curiae of The Buckeye Institute filed.
- Feb 24 2025Brief amici curiae of Christian Legal Society, et al. filed.
- Feb 20 2025Brief amicus curiae of Americans for Prosperity Foundation filed.
- Jan 21 2025Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due February 24, 2025)