First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc. v. Davenport · ¶28

This Court reversed that judgment. In doing so, we began by observing the “vital relationship” between “privacy in one's associations” and the “freedom to associate.” Id., at 462. Strip away the ability of individuals to work together free from governmental oversight and intrusion, and the freedom to associate may become no freedom at all— individuals deterred, groups diminished, and their protected advocacy suppressed. See ibid. Nor, we added, is it “a novel perception” that these outcomes are “particularly” likely to follow when the government seeks to intrude into the workings of groups that hold “dissident beliefs” disfavored by those holding the reins of power. Ibid.

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