He later added: “We have no trouble concluding here that the attorney general’s disclosure requirement is overbroad.”
In a dissent for the court’s three liberals, Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned of the decision’s consequences.
“Today’s analysis marks reporting and disclosure requirements with a bull’s-eye. Regulated entities who wish to avoid their obligations can do so by vaguely waving toward First Amendment ‘privacy concerns,’” she said.
California had required all charities that collect money from state residents to give the state an IRS form identifying their largest contributors. The information is not supposed to be disclosed publicly. Just three other states, Hawaii, New Jersey and New York, require charities to provide the IRS form.
A federal appeals court had upheld California’s practice, ruling that the information serves the important state goal of preventing charities from committing fraud. The information was unlikely to be released publicly, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said.
The two groups that had challenged California’s requirements are the Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center and the Virginia-based Americans for Prosperity Foundation, a charitable organization connected to the primary political organization supported by Koch and his brother, David, who died in 2019. Koch’s organizations have spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting Republican candidates and conservative policies, making them frequent targets of attacks by Democrats.
Both groups argued that their contributors had in the past suffered harassment and threats and that California had in the past let the donor information become public.
In a statement, an attorney for the Thomas More Law Center called Thursday a “great day.”
“This opinion safeguards our client’s donors from the threats of governmental misuse and public disclosure of their identities and addresses — whether intentional, mistaken, or by electronic theft,” Louie Castoria said.
Americans for Prosperity Foundation CEO Emily Seidel said in a statement that the decision: “protects Americans from being forced to choose between staying safe or speaking up.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said he was disappointed by the decision.
“As the People’s Attorney, my office has the responsibility to protect charitable assets for their intended use and ensure that donations go towards their intended purpose. Stripping our office of confidential access to donor information — the same information about major donors that charities already provide to the federal government — will make it harder for the State to fight fraud and prevent the misuse of charitable contributions,” he said in a statement.