The Justice Department announced Thursday that it plans to intervene in a lawsuit brought by an order of Catholic nuns challenging a New York law governing gender identity policies in nursing homes.
The case was filed by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, a Catholic religious order that operates Rosary Hill Home, a nonprofit nursing facility founded more than 125 years ago.
The lawsuit challenges a 2024 New York law prohibiting discrimination based on actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and HIV status.
According to the Justice Department, the Dominican Sisters argue that the law conflicts with their religious beliefs and the manner in which they operate their facility.
Federal officials said the department’s Complaint-in-Intervention alleges the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The filing argues that the law requires religious facilities to comply with standards that conflict with their beliefs while exempting nonreligious facilities from the same requirements.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon announced the department’s decision to support the religious order’s legal challenge.
“States should take notice that they cannot require Americans to abandon their religious beliefs in the name of woke gender ideology,” Dhillon said in a statement.
“For more than a century, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne have provided free palliative care to indigent cancer patients in their last days,” she added.
Dhillon argued that New York’s law forces the nuns to choose between their religious beliefs and their ability to continue operating their facility.
According to the lawsuit, the law is enforced by New York’s Department of Health and requires nursing homes to house residents based on gender identity.
The complaint also alleges that facilities must provide access to bathrooms based on gender identity and use residents’ preferred pronouns.
In addition, the lawsuit claims state training materials instruct nursing homes to create environments that affirm residents’ sexual orientation and gender identity.
According to the complaint, the guidance also directs facilities to accommodate requests for extramarital relationships unless prohibited by a facility-wide policy.
The Washington Times reported that nursing homes found in violation of the requirements may face fines of up to $2,000 for a first offense and up to $5,000 for subsequent violations.
The report added that willful violations of public health law can result in penalties of up to $10,000, one year in prison, or both.
The Justice Department argued that Catholic teaching holds that biological sex is immutable and that referring to individuals as a different sex conflicts with church doctrine, per the Conservative Brief.
According to the department, Rosary Hill houses patients in single-sex rooms based on biological sex and provides personal care consistent with its religious beliefs.
The lawsuit states that caregivers at the facility perform daily services that include grooming residents and assisting with personal needs.
The case marks the latest legal challenge involving conflicts between religious liberty claims and gender identity regulations.
The Justice Department’s intervention places the federal government on the side of the religious order as the lawsuit proceeds through the courts.
A final ruling has not yet been issued, and the legal challenge remains ongoing.
The outcome could have implications for how religiously affiliated nursing homes comply with state anti-discrimination laws in the future.
