Catholic Nuns Score Win In Fight Against NY Assisted Suicide Law

A group of Catholic nuns and health care ministries scored a temporary court win on Thursday in their challenge against New York’s physician-assisted suicide law.

In a four-page filing, the Empire State agreed to a temporary restraining order (TRO) by Biden-appointed Judge Anne Nardacci that momentarily bars government officials from enforcing the contested statute against the Catholic challengers. The directive will remain in effect as Nardacci considers the plaintiffs’ motion for emergency relief and the state’s cross-motion to dismiss the complaint.

At issue in Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm v. James is New York’s recently passed Medical Aid in Dying Act (MAID), which grants terminally ill adults the ability to request that their physician administer life-ending drugs. The statute lays out the process by which patients may do so, as well as the form language they must use when filing such a request.

The plaintiff Catholic nuns and health care ministries allege that the law — in conjunction with the state’s Palliative Care Information Act — “conscript[s] even religious healthcare providers and institutions to participate in the provision of physician-assisted suicide.” They claim that these statutes’ provisions violate their First Amendment rights because they require “medical providers caring for terminally ill New Yorkers … to proactively inform and counsel their patients about their ‘option’ to kill themselves,” a mandate at odds with the Catholic Church’s teachings.

[READ:[READ:Catholic Nuns Take On New York’s ‘Coercive’ Physician-Assisted Suicide Law In Court]

In their initial lawsuit, the plaintiffs asked Nardacci to grant their requests to bar the state and its officials from enforcing the contested provisions against them before the MAID Act takes effect on Aug. 5. They additionally requested that the court declare that the MAID Act and PCIA “violate the First Amendment by impermissibly infringing on Plaintiffs’ authority to govern their internal religious affairs free from government interference.”

Nardacci’s TRO temporarily bars New York from forcing the Catholic plaintiffs, as well as their providers and employees, to “provide information and counseling about the use of medication for aid in dying” or “establish policies and procedures governing how information and counselling about the use of medication for medical aid in dying will be provided.” It also stops the state from compelling the plaintiffs to perform a host of other actions and speech that seemingly adhere to MAID. New York’s agreement to the TRO is “not an admission or representation” that such conduct “is required by law,” according to the directive.

Nardacci noted that the agreed-to order does not prevent the Empire State from “adopting, developing or promulgating policies and procedures” related to MAID and the PCIA. Nor does it bar the state from enforcing the statutes against non-parties in the suit.

Additional briefing and litigation on the matter will continue into August and September, as outlined in Thursday’s order.