A state AG demanded 10 years of two advocacy groups' files, drafts and allies. A federal judge just blocked it

West Virginia's Attorney General subpoenaed two citizen advocacy groups for a decade of their working lives: everything they published, unreleased drafts, internal debates over what to say, the groups they funded, shared board members, coalitions they joined, and comments they filed with agencies. No consumer was cheated, nothing was sold, and nobody relied on any statement. The groups just argue in public about policy, and the AG had publicly condemned that advocacy.

On Oct. 29, Judge Joseph Goodwin (S.D. W. Va.) blocked the subpoenas while the case proceeds:

"The country was founded on the premise that a citizen owes the government no account of his opinions or of the people he holds them with."

Why it matters: this protection doesn't depend on which side you're on. If a state's top lawyer can rifle through an advocacy group's drafts and allies because he dislikes its message, every church, gun-rights group, taxpayer association and homeschool network is next. NAACP v. Alabama settled this in 1958: freedom of association means the government doesn't get your membership list. The AG has already dropped his demand for donor names.

Case: W. Va. Rivers Coalition, Inc. v. McCuskey (S.D. W. Va., Oct. 29, 2026).

Source: Volokh Conspiracy at Reason