July 1, 2021
Decided July 1, 2021
Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta, No. 19-251, consolidated with Thomas More Law Center v. Bonta, No. 19-255
Today, the Supreme Court held 6-3 that California’s requirement that non-profit organizations disclose their donor lists unconstitutionally burdens those organizations’ expressive association rights, in violation of the First Amendment.
Background:
The California Attorney General requires private charities that operate or fundraise in California to register annually with the state. Registration entails filing various tax forms, including Schedule B to IRS Form 990—which requires charitable organizations to list the names and addresses of contributors that donated more than $5,000 or 2% of the organization’s budget during the tax year. California informed charities that their Schedule B disclosures would be kept confidential; in reality, however, California law required public disclosure of these documents until 2016. The state’s asserted justification for the disclosure requirement is a law-enforcement interest in regulating non-profit activity. Two non-profit organizations challenged the disclosure requirement as unconstitutional, arguing that it chills expressive association by exposing donors to harassment and that less-restrictive means are available to California to further its asserted interest. The Ninth Circuit upheld the disclosure requirement, holding that “exacting” scrutiny—not “strict” scrutiny—applied, and the requirement was sufficiently related to an important government interest.
Issue:
(1) Whether exacting scrutiny or strict scrutiny applies to disclosure requirements that burden nonelectoral, expressive association rights; and (2) whether California’s disclosure requirement violates charities’ and their donors’ freedom of association and speech facially or as applied to Petitioners.
Court’s Holding:
(1) The Court’s holding on the standard of review was fractured: A three-Justice plurality stated that disclosure laws like California’s must satisfy exacting scrutiny. While one Justice in the majority would have applied strict scrutiny, two others declined to resolve the issue. (2) A majority of the Court held that California’s law is facially unconstitutional under exacting scrutiny. California’s interest in administrative convenience is weak, and a blanket disclosure requirement for organizations not suspected of wrongdoing is not narrowly tailored to this interest.
“There is a dramatic mismatch . . . between the interest that the Attorney General seeks to promote and the disclosure regime that he has implemented in service of that end.”
Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the Court
What It Means:
The Court’s opinion is available here.
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