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First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc. v. Davenport · ¶32

We held that the State's demand, like others before it, violated the First Amendment. To be sure, the Attorney General “trie[d] to downplay” the impact his demand had on associational rights, stressing that he promised to keep the groups' donor information to himself and prohibit its public dissemination. Id., at 615. But we found that promise of no moment. Demands for private donor information, we held, “chill” protected First Amendment associational rights even when those demands contemplate disclosure only to government officials and not “ `the general public.' ” Id., at 616 (quoting Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U. S. 479, 486 (1960)). So any demand for donor information, we said, must overcome heightened First Amendment scrutiny “given the `deterrent effect on the exercise of First Amendment rights' that arises as an `inevitable result of the government's conduct.' ” AFP, 594 U. S., at…
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