Clarence Thomas forces NJ attorney to admit state targeted pro-life group with probe

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Conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas got a lawyer for the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office to admit Tuesday it mounted a “fishing expedition” against a pro-life organization without receiving specific complaints about the group.

Thomas drilled down on the investigation of First Choice Women’s Resource Centers during oral arguments in a case challenging a subpoena the organization received from AG Matthew Platkin’s office.

“You had no basis to think that they were deceiving any of their contributors?” Thomas asked Chief Counsel Sundeep Iyer.

“We certainly had complaints about crisis pregnancy centers,” Iyer deflected before admitting none specifically applied to First Choice, a faith-based nonprofit with five facilities across the Garden State that discourages women from terminating their pregnancies.

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“We had no complaints,” Iyer said. “But state governments, [the] federal government, initiate investigations all the time in the absence of complaints where they have a reason to suspect that there could be potential issues of legal compliance.”

“I think we had a more than ample basis to initiate this,” he added, citing concerns about misleading donors, unlicensed medical practices, violation of patient privacy, and “potentially misleading or untrue medical statements.”

“Well, that just seems a burdensome way to find out whether someone has a confusing website,” jabbed Thomas.

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