Federal District Court Blocks Virginia AG’s Attempt to Obtain Donor Lists

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia enjoined Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares from enforcing a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) to the extent it required the AJP Educational Foundation, Inc. (d/b/a America Muslims for Palestine) to produce its donor lists. The court and the defendant acknowledged the authority of the AG to enforce the Virginia Solicitation of Contribution law at issue in the underlying state litigation. But the court found that under Supreme Court precedent the First Amendment protects donor information from overly broad requests, and that the request at issue here likely failed to satisfy this requirement. The court also rejected several challenges to its jurisdiction given that the CID is the subject of ongoing state court litigation.