{"id":244169,"date":"2021-05-02T09:29:56","date_gmt":"2021-05-02T14:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=244169"},"modified":"2021-04-29T12:49:58","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T17:49:58","slug":"pro-life-legal-supreme-court-donor-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-legal-supreme-court-donor-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-life legal group fights at Supreme Court to protect donor privacy in California"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>(<a href=\"https:\/\/adflegal.org\/blog\/why-you-should-follow-crucial-donor-privacy-case-being-argued-scotus\">Alliance Defending Freedom<\/a>)\u00a0Do you believe in the freedom of association? Do you think people should be able to support causes they are passionate about without fear of public backlash?<\/p>\n<p>If you answered \u201cyes\u201d to either of these questions, you should follow this important case at the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>This morning [April 26, 2021], the Court will hear oral arguments in <em>Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta<\/em> and <a href=\"https:\/\/adflegal.org\/case\/thomas-more-law-center-v-rodriquez\"><em>Thomas More Law Center v. Bonta<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s at stake in this combined case is whether Americans are free to peacefully support causes they believe in without fear of harassment or intimidation.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-nrd6mu08WE\" width=\"640\" height=\"355\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/center><center><\/center>Both Thomas More Law Center and the Americans for Prosperity Foundation are non-profit organizations who rely on support from donors to fulfill their missions. Thomas More Law Center is a Michigan-based legal organization that defends and promotes religious freedom, moral and family values, and the sanctity of life. <a href=\"https:\/\/americansforprosperityfoundation.org\/about-us\/\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Americans for Prosperity Foundation<\/a>\u00a0educates and trains citizens to be advocates for freedom.<\/p>\n<p>Both organizations reach out to supporters in California, the nation\u2019s most populous state.<\/p>\n<p>But in 2010, the California Attorney General\u2019s Office instituted a new policy to demand all non-profits who fundraise in the state to provide all their major supporters\u2019 information every year\u2014with no reason to think they\u2019re doing anything wrong. And with no regulatory need for that information at all.<\/p>\n<p>Both Thomas More Law Center and Americans for Prosperity Foundation knew that to hand over this information would be bad for their supporters.<\/p>\n<p>First, the Attorney General\u2019s Office has a political bent and has leaked information in the past. Employees carelessly labeled nearly 1,800 Schedule Bs as \u201cpublic\u201d and made them available to anyone online. While some government authorities, such as the IRS, may have a fairly consistent record of keeping information secure, the California Attorney General\u2019s Office isn\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, if the names of Thomas More Law Center\u2019s and Americans For Prosperity Foundation\u2019s donors were leaked, it may put their lives in danger. We\u2019re living in a tumultuous climate. And we\u2019ve already seen how <a href=\"https:\/\/adflegal.org\/blog\/tech-ceos-story-shows-why-supreme-court-must-protect-donor-privacy\">some publicly reveal the names of political donors<\/a>\u00a0with the intent to harm them (known as \u201cdoxing\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>Thomas More Law Center\u2019s supporters, clients, and employees have already faced harassment, intimidation, death threats, hate mail, boycotts, and even an assassination plot from ideological opponents. Who knows what risks major donors would face if their names and addresses were given to the state or leaked to the public?<\/p>\n<p>The government has no business forcing charities to hand over sensitive information it doesn\u2019t need. In today\u2019s culture, where hostility drives a large portion of the country to self-censor for fear of blacklisting or worse, such policies can invite others to expose and punish their political opponents for their beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>This weakens our discourse and ultimately our freedom of association\u2014our right to choose which groups or messages we associate with (or donate to support). We\u2019d all be cautious to associate with groups if we thought our affiliation with them would cause harm to us or the people we love.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why both organizations are taking a stand at the U.S. Supreme Court. And they are far from standing alone. Over <a href=\"https:\/\/adflegal.org\/blog\/ideological-opponents-band-together-protect-freedom-association\">40 organizations across the political spectrum<\/a>\u00a0have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of Thomas More Law Center and Americans for Prosperity Foundation. This includes the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Human Rights Campaign.<\/p>\n<p>People of all different backgrounds and political persuasions can agree: all Americans should be free to peacefully support causes they believe in without fear of harassment or intimidation.<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully, the Supreme Court will affirm this and deliver justice for Thomas More Law Center, Americans for Prosperity Foundation, and the generous donors who support them.<\/p>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s Note: This article was published at <a href=\"https:\/\/adflegal.org\/blog\/why-you-should-follow-crucial-donor-privacy-case-being-argued-scotus\">ADFLegal.org<\/a> and is reprinted here with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveactionnewsonline\/\">\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Alliance Defending Freedom)\u00a0Do you believe in the freedom of association? Do you think people should be able to support causes they are passionate about without fear of public backlash? If you answered \u201cyes\u201d to either of these questions, you should follow this important case at the U.S. Supreme Court. This morning [April 26, 2021], the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":808,"featured_media":183522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2793,7077,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pro-life legal group fights at Supreme Court to protect donor privacy in California<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Over 40 organizations\u00a0have filed amicus briefs, including the ACLU, to protect the right of Americans to support causes without fear of harassment.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-legal-supreme-court-donor-california\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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