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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   25996 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 20, 2025

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It's unclear whether NAACP would actually apply in this case.

Against this backdrop, First Choice has established a present injury to its First Amendment associational rights and therefore has standing. An injury in fact arises when a defendant burdens a plaintiff’s constitutional rights, and government demands for a charity’s private donor information have just that effect. Such demands inevitably discourage association with groups engaged in protected First Amendment advocacy and encourage groups to cease or modify protected advocacy the government disfavors. All this occurs not just when a demand is enforced but when it is made and for as long as it remains outstanding.

...

Putting aside the uncertainties about any prospective protective order, demands for private donor information burden First Amendment rights “[e]ven if there [is] no disclosure to the general public.” Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U. S. 479, 486. An official demand for private donor information is enough to discourage reasonable individuals from associating with a group and to discourage groups from expressing dissident views. So long as the demand remains outstanding, “the pressure” to avoid ties and speech that “might displease” officials demanding disclosure can “be constant and heavy.”

...

Since NAACP v. Alabama, we have faced many cases along similar lines. In them, one state authority or another has demanded private donor or member information. And in one case after another we have subjected those demands to heightened First Amendment scrutiny. Throughout, we have emphasized the critical role “ ‘privacy in . . . associatio[n]’ ” plays “ ‘in preserving political and cultural diversity and in shielding dissident expression from suppression.’ ” We have acknowledged, too, that demands for private donor information “inevitabl[y]” carry with them a “deterrent effect on the exercise of First Amendment rights.”

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