Sixty-six years ago, the Supreme Court unanimously decided in NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson that compelling private organizations to disclose the identities of their members and donors violates those members' First Amendment freedoms of speech and assembly. The court’s decision constrained Alabama’s efforts to facilitate the intimidation (or worse) of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) supporters and to oust the organization from the state.
Today, this 1958 ruling remains highly relevant as Congress and state legislators across the country debate campaign finance reforms that include compelled disclosure of donors.
The fundamental question at issue then and now is: can the government compel nonprofits to disclose the personal information of their members and donors? In NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson, the court shed light on this complex question. The justices unanimously decided that the First Amendment right to assembly protected the NAACP from the demands of Alabama’s segregationist attorney general, John M. Patterson, who wanted the organization to turn over its membership lists.
Although subsequent rulings have limited the scope of the Patterson ruling, its core statement about associational freedom remains intact. This week marks the 66th anniversary of oral arguments in the case, and as members of Congress and state legislators across the nation continue to frequently debate this hot-button topic, they would do well to remember the 1958 precedent because it remains the definitive judicial statement on this aspect of the First Amendment freedoms.
The oral arguments in Patterson took place over two days (a practice not uncommon at the time) and lasted for almost two and a half hours on Jan. 15-16, 1958.
Alabama’s Assistant Attorney General Edmon L. Rinehart stood before the justices of the Supreme Court to defend his state’s efforts to oust the NAACP from his state and demand that the association turn over its membership lists.
NAACP General Counsel Robert L. Carter, who later became a federal judge, contended that disclosing the names of the association’s members violated the First Amendment and the due process protections of the Fourteenth Amendment. He argued that disclosure would mean “possible harm, threats, and fears” reflective of the climate of “open hostility” to the NAACP and Black Americans more generally in the Heart of Dixie.