A group of Catholic religious sisters is taking the Empire State’s Democratic government to court, citing religious liberty violations.

For over a century, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, founded by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, daughter of the American novelist Nathanial Hawthorne, have ministered to the sick and dying in New York. In 1901, the Sisters opened Rosary Hill House, providing hospice care for terminally-ill cancer patients. In 2024, however, the Sisters were notified that they could potentially face jail time for falling afoul of a New York law requiring the Sisters and other hospice care providers to assign rooms and beds according to patients’ gender identities rather than their biological sexes, to use patients’ “preferred pronouns,” to “accommodate patients’ desire for extramarital relations,” and a host of other policies in conflict with the longstanding moral teachings and practices of the Catholic Church.

Last week, the Sisters filed a lawsuit against New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) and the New York Department of Health, charging them with violating the Sisters’ First Amendment rights to religious liberty and 14th Amendment rights to equal protection under the law. “The Mandate exempts facilities operated by the Church of Christ, Scientist but provides no exemption for Catholic or other religious organizations. If the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne and Rosary Hill Home do not comply, they face fines, injunctions, potential loss of licensing, and imprisonment,” the lawsuit warns, noting that the Sisters do not take funding from the either government or insurance. “All employees and clinical contractors at Rosary Hill affirm the truth of Catholic Church teachings and pledge to conduct themselves consistently with the teachings of the Church and the values of the Sisters,” the lawsuit stipulates.

One of the policies that the Sisters adhere to is only housing patients in single-sex rooms: male patients are housed with other male patients, and female patients with other female patients. Bathrooms are also sex-segregated. Despite the fact that no complaint has been lodged against the Sisters or Rosary Hill, the Sisters received a series of “Dear Administrator” letters from the New York Department of Health, starting in 2024. The letters warned the Sisters that they are not in compliance with the state’s LGBTQ Long-Term Care Facility Residents’ Bill of Rights and that they could therefore face penalties, including fines, court order, potential loss of licensing, and jail time. “This applies to both the facility and its employees,” including the Sisters, the lawsuit notes.

The lawsuit also avers that the New York Department of Health sought to compel the Sisters to undergo LGBT “training” in order to continue operating Rosary Hill. “The State’s training materials are ideological in nature and are aimed at educating workers on what the State believes to be ‘affirming’ care for LGBTQIA+ people,” the lawsuit charges. “The training materials emphasize the importance of using preferred pronouns and instruct that transgender people must be allowed to use whatever restroom they wish even if it makes others uncomfortable. They also emphasize that a facility should make homosexual patients feel comfortable being ‘romantic with each other’ and provide ‘support and acceptance about [patients’] sexual health.’”

Both the requirements of the LGBTQ Long-Term Care Facility Residents’ Bill of Rights and the state-mandated LGBT training expressly contradict, and would compel the Sisters to violate, the longstanding moral teachings of the Catholic Church, which classify homosexual activity and gender transition efforts as gravely sinful and inherently disordered. “The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne and Rosary Hill Home currently engage in the religious practices that the Mandate prohibits: housing patients in single-sex rooms, using pronouns consistent with biological sex, and declining to post the required notice,” the lawsuit observes. “They are presently subject to enforcement under the Mandate, have received three formal Dear Administrator Letters demanding compliance, and face imminent fines and license revocation if they continue their current religious practices. They have not complied and do not intend to comply.”

“Across seven independent constitutional grounds, New York’s Mandate demands that the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne abandon their religious beliefs or abandon their 125-year mission of mercy to the dying poor,” the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, concludes. “The Constitution permits neither. This Court should declare the Mandate unconstitutional as applied to Plaintiffs and permanently enjoin its enforcement against Plaintiffs.”

In a statement shared with the press, Martin Nussbaum of the First & Fourteenth law firm, who is representing the Sisters, shared that the Sisters had requested a religious exemption from the state prior to filing the lawsuit, but had received no response. Nussbaum said that “this was especially disappointing because New York’s law provides religious exemption for long-term care facilities affiliated with the Christian Science Church but not for similar Catholic facilities. The Sisters were left with no choice but to file suit in federal court, and the Catholic Benefits Association has helped them do that.”

Sister Stella Mary, administrator of Rosary Hill, said that her order’s foundress “charged us to serve those who are ‘to pass from one life to another’ and to ‘make them as comfortable and happy as if their own people had kept them and put them into the very best bedroom.’” She added, “We intend to continue honoring this sacred obligation but need relief from the Court to do so.”