July 9, 2025
RALEIGH – The John Locke Foundation must again address another of Governor Josh Stein’s vetoes—Senate Bill 416, the Personal Privacy Protection Act. This legislation would have reinforced the privacy of individuals who support charitable and nonprofit organizations by prohibiting state agencies and public officials from collecting or disclosing sensitive personal information about donors.
The principle of donor privacy is firmly grounded in American constitutional law and civil rights history. In its 1958 decision in NAACP v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that forcing the NAACP to reveal its membership lists would violate the First Amendment. The Court recognized that such compelled disclosure could expose individuals to threats, harassment, and retaliation, chilling their freedom to support causes and organizations of their choosing — a threat to the very democratic ideals upon which our nation was founded.
Senate Bill 416 would strengthen this critical and long-standing precedent, ensuring charitable donors need not fear retaliation for their philanthropic contributions. For that reason, we implore the North Carolina General Assembly to override Gov. Stein’s veto of this bill.
Donald Bryson, CEO of the John Locke Foundation, issued the following statement:
“Vetoing the Personal Privacy Protection Act leaves North Carolinians vulnerable to activist state employees and regulators who could pry into private nonprofit donor lists. The bill retained every existing nonprofit reporting requirement but erected a critical firewall forbidding any public agency or staffer from demanding or disclosing personal donor information—safeguards that are essential to a free democracy because they secure free association, free speech, and limited government.”