Victory In Supreme Court On Donor Disclosure Case

The “cancel culture” took a little hit today as the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision in Americans For Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta, ruled unconstitutional a California law requiring non-profit organizations to disclose their donors to the California Attorney General’s office. As you may remember, it was the disclosure that Brendan Eich had donated $1000 to California’s Proposition 8 campaign (marriage =  one man + one woman) that forced him to resign as CEO of Mozilla (owner of the Firefox browser). Today’s ruling preserves the anonymity of donors to organizations throughout the political spectrum.

The Family Foundation had such an interest in the outcome of this issue that it joined an amicus brief that urged the Court to rule the California law unconstitutional. In the amicus brief, TFF and others argued that the First Amendment Right to peaceably assemble protected the confidential relationship between an organization and its donors. Justice Thomas, in his opinion concurring in the judgment, agreed with this approach, and wrote that a state must have a compelling interest in the disclosure of donors and that it had not proved a compelling state interest in this case.  The Chief Justice and Justices Kavanaugh and Barrett in one opinion, and Justices Alito and Gorsuch in another opinion, similarly agreed that the California law was unconstitutional, but on other grounds. Justices Sotomayor, Breyer, and Kagan dissented.