This article traces a long legal fight between Catholic religious orders and government rules that they say violate their faith, describes a fresh lawsuit by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne against a New York transgender-rights law, and explains how similar state actions have pushed religious charities into repeated court battles.
The Little Sisters of the Poor have been in court again as recently as December, filing appeals in Pennsylvania and New Jersey after years of litigation over mandates to provide abortion and birth control coverage. That dispute began under the Obama administration when religious employers resisted being forced to include contraceptive and abortion-related benefits in employee plans. Hobby Lobby and the Little Sisters were the two most visible groups to push back and take their claims to court.
Even after winning multiple court victories, including before the Supreme Court, religious nonprofits face new pressures from state governments that keep changing rules and enforcement priorities. Those pressures often come from blue states that insist on stricter requirements for compliance and sometimes threaten fines or criminal penalties. The result is recurring litigation and strained budgets for organizations that run on donations and volunteer labor.
Now the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who run a home for the terminally ill poor, have filed suit against New York over its transgender-rights law, saying the mandate forces them to act against core Catholic beliefs. The Sisters say the law requires nursing homes to honor pronouns, assign rooms, and allow restroom access based on gender identity, which would force them to mix sexes in private spaces and use language that conflicts with their faith. They argue the state’s rules leave them no practical option to continue their ministry without violating conscience protections.
An order of Catholic nuns who care for the terminally ill poor has sued to block a New York transgender-rights law that requires nursing homes to use pronouns, assign rooms and allow restroom access based on a patient’s gender identity, or risk jail time.
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, a 125-year-old nonprofit institution that runs the Rosary Hill Home, on Tuesday filed a lawsuit accusing the state of violating the religious group’s constitutional rights with the LGBTQ Long-Term Care Facility Residents’ Bill of Rights.
“We Sisters have taken care of patients from all walks of life, ideologies, and faiths. We treat each patient with dignity and Christian charity,” Mother Marie Edward, general superior of the Hawthorne Dominicans, said in a statement. “We have never had complaints. We cannot implement New York’s mandate without violating our Catholic faith.”
Catholic Benefits Association, which is assisting the Hawthorne Dominicans, noted the law exempts the Church of Christ, Scientist, while offering no similar carve outs for Catholics or many other religious organizations. That selective treatment is the core of the Sisters’ claim: inconsistent enforcement that singles out their ministry for punishment. When one faith is treated differently than another, constitutional questions about equal protection and religious liberty inevitably follow.
There is a pattern here: government officials use licensing, funding rules, and criminal penalties to force secular compliance on faith-based programs or else threaten closure. When shelters, food banks, and hospice homes cannot follow government dictates without abandoning core beliefs, many choose litigation rather than compromise the care they provide. Legal battles can take years and drain scarce resources away from front-line services.
“For admission as a resident, they only require a terminal diagnosis of cancer and your word that there is no one to care for you,” wrote Fr. Petri. Those simple admission standards underscore why these homes exist: to serve the most vulnerable without bureaucratic barriers. Yet the state’s enforcement choices treat that charity as expendable when it collides with progressive policy goals.
Democrats are pushing for a national “trans bill of rights” that would codify these kinds of mandates across many sectors, from education to health care and long-term care. If that federal push succeeds, religious ministries that serve the poor and terminally ill could find themselves facing uniform, nationwide rules that leave no room for conscience-based exceptions. The legal and operational consequences would be profound for small, faith-driven providers.
Republicans argue the pattern is deliberate: pressure from blue-state policymakers aims to reduce the influence of traditional religious providers and expand government control over social services. The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne provide compassionate, end-of-life care to people who otherwise have nowhere to turn, and forcing them to choose between doctrine and compliance risks shuttering those essential services. Courts will now decide whether the balance of religious liberty and nondiscrimination can be preserved under current law.
