politics
Justice Department to back Catholic nuns in New York nursing-home lawsuit
The department said Thursday it will intervene in a federal case filed by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne against a 2024 state law on gender-identity accommodations in nursing homes. The nuns operate Rosary Hill Home, a 125-year-old facility providing free end-of-life care.
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The Justice Department said Thursday it will intervene in a lawsuit filed by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne against a New York law that requires nursing homes to house patients according to gender identity. The department’s filing states the 2024 statute violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause by imposing requirements on religious facilities that it does not place on non-religious ones.
Background of the dispute The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne run Rosary Hill Home, a nonprofit that has provided free palliative care to indigent cancer patients for 125 years. The order houses patients in rooms based on biological sex and refers to them by pronouns matching that sex.
The state law, enforced by the Department of Health, directs facilities to assign rooms and restrooms by gender identity, use preferred pronouns, and create environments that affirm patients’ sexual preferences. Penalties range from $2,000 for a first violation to $10,000 or one year in prison for willful violations.
Department statement U.S.
” Catholic teaching holds that biological sex is God-given and cannot be changed, and that referring to a person by another sex is religiously prohibited, the department said.
