The Little Sisters of the Poor beat Obama at the Supreme Court back in 2016.
Kathy Hochul just tried to force those same nuns into her new assisted suicide law.
A federal judge stepped in days before that law even took effect.
Federal Judge Signs Order Days Before Assisted Suicide Law Takes Effect
U.S. District Judge Anne Nardacci signed a consent order on July 30.
The order shields a coalition of Catholic religious orders from New York's Medical Aid in Dying Act.
That law was set to take effect August 5.
Hochul cut a deal with state legislators to pass it back in December.
It lets terminally ill patients with six months or less to live obtain drugs to end their own lives.
The plaintiffs include the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, the Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict, and the Little Sisters of the Poor.
Bishop John Barres of the Diocese of Rockville Centre joined them, along with Catholic Health and a string of Catholic nursing homes.
New York's law technically includes a religious exemption.
Here's the catch – it still required objecting nuns to refer dying patients to someone willing to help kill them.
The lawsuit called that a rigged choice.
The complaint said New York gave these ministries just one option: "Either abandon their religious beliefs regarding the sanctity of life or face significant fines and penalties."
Nuns Faced Jail Time and License Loss for Refusing to Help Kill Patients
The penalties were not symbolic.
Violators faced civil fines up to $2,000 per incident.
Add criminal fines and up to a year in jail on top of that.
Add professional license suspension or revocation for doctors and administrators who said no.
Becket Fund president Mark Rienzi represented the sisters and did not soften the language.
Rienzi called forcing the nuns to participate in assisted suicide "unlawful and unjust."
Judge Nardacci's order now blocks the state from requiring these ministries to counsel patients on assisted suicide.
It blocks the state from forcing them to arrange referrals or document requests for lethal drugs.
It blocks New York from punishing any employee who refuses to help a patient die.
The Little Sisters spent nearly a decade fighting the Obama administration before the Supreme Court finally locked in their religious exemption for good.
Hochul just picked a fight with an order of nuns who have already beaten a sitting president.
Why Democrats Keep Losing These Fights
New York Democrats built a habit of writing laws that sound compassionate and function as coercion.
The Medical Aid in Dying Act was sold as a mercy for the dying.
In practice it told Catholic hospitals to either process death requests or get prosecuted.
That is not tolerance. That is Albany daring the Catholic Church to blink first.
The Church didn't blink, and now Hochul has a federal judge's signature proving her law can't survive contact with the First Amendment.
New York taxpayers are about to fund a losing legal battle Albany could have avoided by simply respecting the First Amendment in the first place.
Sources:
- Ben Smith, "Catholic Nuns Score Early Win Against Hochul's 'Culture of Death' Law," RedState, August 4, 2026.
- "Court Shields Catholic Nuns from New York Assisted Suicide Law," Breitbart, August 3, 2026.
- "Catholic nuns sue New York, say assisted suicide law forces them to violate their faith," Fox News, 2026.
- "Little Sisters of Poor Win Big at Supreme Court, but Fight Isn't Over," The Heritage Foundation.
- "Catholic nuns sue New York to block law forcing them to assist in patient suicides," Becket Fund, 2026.
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