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On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down California’s law mandating that nonprofits turn over their lists of donors to the state. Back in 2015, then-Attorney General Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) demanded that two conservative nonprofits, Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), hand over their donor lists. This demand threatened to reveal the identities of donors, potentially subjecting them to threats and harassment.
By a 6-3 majority in
Americans for Prosperity v. Bonta (2021), the Court struck down the donor disclosure requirement, ruling that the disclosure mandate violated the Free Association Clause of the First Amendment. The Court declared the law “facially invalid” because it “burdens donors’ First Amendment rights and is not narrowly tailored to an important government interest.”
California’s government has no legitimate interest let alone a “compelling” one to justify its demand for private donor information from charities that have done nothing wrong. In our polarized, political climate, the right to donor privacy must be protected.