The U.S. Supreme Court today in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta, (Sup. Ct., July 1,2021), held unconstitutional California’s requirement that charitable organizations soliciting funds in the state disclose their major donors to the state Attorney General. In a 6-3 opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts, the Court said in part:
We are left to conclude that the Attorney General’s disclosure requirement imposes a widespread burden on donors’ associational rights. And this burden cannot be justified on the ground that the regime is narrowly tailored to investigating charitable wrongdoing, or that the State’s interest in administrative convenience is sufficiently important. We therefore hold that the up-front collection of Schedule Bs is facially unconstitutional, because it fails exacting scrutiny in “a substantial number of its applications . . . judged in relation to [its] plainly legitimate sweep.
Justice Thomas filed a concurring opinion. Justice Alito, joined by Justice Gorsuch, filed a concurring opinion. Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Breyer and Kagan, dissented, saying in part:
Today, the Court holds that reporting and disclosure requirements must be narrowly tailored even if a plaintiff demonstrates no burden at all. The same scrutiny the Court applied when NAACP members in the Jim Crow South did not want to disclose their membership for fear of reprisals and violence now applies equally in the case of donors only too happy to publicize their names across the websites and walls of the organizations they support.