The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Wednesday in favor of faith-based ministries challenging state government overreach in an important decision for religious freedom.
The court unanimously ruled in favor of faith-based ministries being able to seek federal assistance when intrusive state investigations threaten to undermine their mission, in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Davenport. The ruling is also a major victory against the pro-death abortion lobby, and it’s a triumph for the constitutional right to religious liberty, a right that leftists are constantly attempting to undermine.
New Jersey tried to harass pro-life, religious ministry First Choice, which provides services to pregnant women, evidently in a move targeting pro-life work by a Democrat official who is aggressively pro-abortion.
You can get a taste of the leftist perspective on this case in the X post announcement about the Wednesday Supreme Court decision from The Washington Post: “The Supreme Court ruled that a chain of faith-based antiabortion pregnancy centers can mount a federal court challenge to a subpoena for its donors that it claims is part of an intimidation campaign by New Jersey officials hostile to its views on abortion.”
In other words, the centers want to help both women and their babies instead of just offering to kill the babies, which would put the mothers at a much higher risk of depression, suicidal ideation, and substance abuse. New Jersey was trying to mandate support for abortion in religious ministry.
In contrast to The Washington Post’s propaganda, Rep. Mary Miller (R-Illinois) praised the unanimous SCOTUS decision. “The Supreme Court just delivered a unanimous victory for LIFE! Faith-based pregnancy centers will not be targeted by government officials simply for serving women and protecting the unborn. This was the right decision,” she rejoiced.
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The Becket Fund, which had filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, reported:
In First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Davenport, New Jersey’s attorney general [Jennifer Davenport] tried to force First Choice—a pro-life Christian ministry serving women facing unplanned pregnancies—to disclose how it applies its statement of faith to employees and volunteers, works with churches to support its ministry, relates to other pro-life organizations, and how it explains what God is doing in its ministry—without a single complaint or any evidence of wrongdoing.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the ministry and against the state officials. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that “associational rights carry special significance for political, social, religious, and other minorities”.
William Haun, senior counsel at Becket, celebrated: “This is a triumph for every faith-based ministry in America. The Court made crystal clear that our First Amendment freedoms—including religious freedom—are ‘necessarily’ associative, and that keeps the federal courthouse doors open for religious groups to protect their governance from intrusive state bureaucrats.”
A day of wins for constitutional rights, indeed.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article erroneously reported that a second Supreme Court decision had just been announced, when in fact, that case had been announced a month ago.
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