A federal judge has blocked a new Illinois law that targets crisis pregnancy centers in the state, saying that it violates the First Amendment. 

The bill that was signed into law last week by Governor J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) allows the state’s attorney general to investigate a case of alleged consumer fraud against crisis pregnancy centers accused of deceptive practices, but it has raised concerns that it would be used to target pro-life centers that suggest an association between abortion and breast cancer or infertility.

“The bill is painfully and blatantly a violation of the First Amendment,” U.S. District Judge Iain Johnston said on Thursday. 

“There’s no doubt who the Attorney General wants to win or lose in the market place of ideas, but the government doesn’t get to decide that,” Johnston, a Trump-appointee, added. “The people do.”

Almost immediately after the law was enacted, the Thomas More Society, a conservative law firm that fights in defense of religious liberty and free speech, filed a suit challenging the law. 

“Free Speech won today in the Land of Lincoln — pro-life advocates across Illinois can breathe a sigh of relief they won’t be pursued for ‘misinformation’ by Attorney General Kwame Raoul,” Peter Breen, the executive vice president and head of litigation for the Thomas More Society, said after the judge’s ruling.

The suit was filed on behalf of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, Women’s Pregnancy Services, Rockford Family Initiative, Relevant Pregnancy Options Center, and the Pro-Life Action League.

“Across the nation, pregnancy help ministries are being discriminated against by laws that target their life-affirming work,” said Breen. “The injunction granted today sends a strong, clear message to the country that the First Amendment protects pro-life speech.”

Centers found guilty of alleged “misinformation, deceptive practices, or misrepresentation” could have faced $50,000 in fines if found guilty. 

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Pritzker said he believes that the law will ultimately take effect and keep women in the state from accessing so-called “misinformation.”

“I’m disappointed that the far-right is interfering with the ability for women to access safe medical care without deception or lies,” he said. “This law is constitutional and I am confident that the law will ultimately be found constitutional and we’ll continue to work alongside Attorney General Raoul to ensure Illinois patients are protected from misinformation.”

Vermont has instituted a similar law taking aim at pro-life pregnancy centers, a law that is also being challenged in court.

Former President Donald Trump on Friday called on the Supreme Court to “intercede” in his mounting legal battles.

Trump excoriated his political enemies on social media one day after he pleaded not guilty to federal changes in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the January 6 Capitol riot and 2020 election interference.

“CRAZY! My political opponent has hit me with a barrage of weak lawsuits, including D.A., A.G., and others, which require massive amounts of my time & money to adjudicate,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform Friday morning.

Trump added that resources that could have gone to advertisements and rallies will now have to be spent fighting the “Radical Left Thugs” in courts across the country.

“I am leading in all Polls, including against Crooked Joe, but this is not a level playing field,” Trump said.

Trump lobbed the election interference accusation back at his political opponents and said the high court must intervene.

“It is Election Interference, & the Supreme Court must intercede. MAGA!” Trump wrote.

Trump was indicted on Tuesday and appeared in court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to plead not guilty to the charges accusing him of attempting to undermine democracy by trying to overturn the 2020 election.

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The former president is facing four charges, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructing an official proceeding, and conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted.

Trump has faced two other indictments in the past several months. He is facing 34 charges of falsifying business records related to alleged hush-money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump is also facing 40 charges related to his handling of sensitive documents after he left office, a case also being prosecuted by Smith. In addition, Trump is facing civil litigation.

While it is possible Trump’s cases could end up in front of the Supreme Court, this would not likely happen until the cases have progressed much further.

Some legal critics said they believe the election interference case against the former president has significant legal problems.

Legal scholar Jonathan Turley called parts of the indictment “jarring.”

“It said [Trump] was spreading falsehoods, that [he] was undermining integrity of the election — that is all part of the First Amendment,” Turley said. “And I think that courts will look skeptically.”

Andrew McCarthy, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said he believes the charges have “significant legal problems, and that’s even before you get to the complex problems of trying to prove Trump’s intent.”

President Joe Biden has said that Americans can trust the independent Justice Department as it investigates Trump.

“I have never once, not one single time, suggested to the Justice Department what they should do or not do relative to bringing a charge or not bringing a charge,” Biden said in June.

Special counsel Smith in June emphasized the “scope and the gravity” of the classified documents case. Attorney General Merrick Garland defended the Justice Department’s investigation as well, saying Smith, as well as the prosecutors and agents involved, are committed to “integrity and the rule of law.”