First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc. v. Davenport · ¶27

NAACP v. Alabama addressed this last problem “in its starkest form.” AFP, 594 U. S., at 606. Responding to the NAACP's efforts to promote integration in Alabama in the 1950s, the State's Attorney General (and future Governor) John Patterson brought a lawsuit in state court. In it, he contended that the NAACP was operating illegally in Alabama because it had failed to register with the Secretary of State as required by state law. NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U. S., at 451–453. As remedy, he sought a judicial decree effectively banning the organization from the State. Id., at 452. And to prove his allegation that the NAACP was operating in Alabama, Mr. Patterson demanded the names and addresses of all NAACP members and agents in the State. Id., at 453. When the organization refused to disclose its membership rolls, a state court imposed a sanction of $100,000 (over $1 million today), and the…

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