Nonprofits Ask Supreme Court to Hear Landmark First Amendment Case to Protect Donors' Confidentiality

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider this week whether to hear a potentially landmark First Amendment case on donations to nonprofit groups, marking a flashpoint in a battle over money and free speech increasingly taking place in courts instead of legislatures.

At issue is a California regulation requiring all nonprofit groups that solicit donors in the state to disclose extensive amounts of information about their internal operations, including lists of all of their major donors.

The Center for Competitive Politics, a libertarian campaign-finance legal group appealing a federal court ruling upholding those regulations, said the regulation is a blatant violation of its First Amendment right to associate with other private citizens free from the intrusion of government regulators.