New York has been a godsend for gun rights in passing a series of unconstitutional limits on Second Amendment rights only to result in major adverse rulings. It may soon do the same for the free exercise of religion. New York is now going head-to-head with a group of Dominican nuns over a law challenged as unconstitutional. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state are being sued over a law that forces religious organizations to adhere to LGBTQ policies.
Mother Marie Edward, O.P., explained to Fox News Digital that they will not set their faith aside under the threat of fines, loss of licensing and even jail time. She noted that they ask nothing from the state and ask to be allowed to offer charity without abandoning their religious principles:
“We are consecrated religious Sisters and have one mission. It is to provide comfort and skilled care to persons dying of cancer who cannot afford nursing care. We do not take insurance or government funds or money from our patients or families. The care is totally free…
We are supported by the goodness of our benefactors. We do this without discriminating on the basis of race, religion, or sex. We do it because Jesus taught us that, when the least among us are sick, we should care for them, as if they were Christ himself.”
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who run Rosary Hill Home in Hawthorne, New York, objected that the law requires them to assign rooms by gender identity, not biological sex; allow access to opposite-sex bathrooms and coerce speech recognizing identities and relationships that violate Catholic values. It would also require staff training on gender ideology and the posting a public notice stating compliance with these demands.
According to a press release from the Catholic Benefits Association, the New York State Department of Health sent the first in a series of “Dear Administrator” letters to the Hawthorne Dominicans’ Rosary Hill Home demanding compliance despite their religious objections. The nuns note that they have never had a single complaint filed over the treatment of its residents.
If they do not comply, the nuns face fines up to $2,000 per violation that increase up to $10,000 as well as the loss of licensing and up to one year in prison.
Hochul remains committed to compelling the nuns to comply — a position that may prove costly with Catholic voters in the upcoming election.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly struck down anti-discrimination laws compelling speech or conduct in violation of religious values.
For example, in Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania (2020), the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of the Little Sisters of the Poor, allowing the Catholic nuns to refuse to provide contraceptive coverage in their health plans.
NY laws should be challenged as forced speech and bathroom use, gym etc as conduct regarding decent conduct, moral conduct of US society.
The idea of religion and exercise is the state cannot dictate what a religion may believe and conduct associated with a religion. This involves what you will and will not do. The purpose of the nuns hospice is to help the dying. There is a moral code to follow and speech cannot be forced. It isn’t the purpose of a hospice in general to worship God but in this case the nuns worship God in the actions of helping the poor and ill in dying. It is religious worship.
Lower courts will rule for nuns. It’s obvious. The challenge is NY laws and applications of CRA.
It is religious exercise, not religious worship. The first amendment guarantees free exercise of religion. Worship makes up only part of the free exercise of religion. The religious Sisters consider hospice care part of their religious duty and claim the freedom to exercise it.
President Obama often boiled the free exercise clause down to just freedom of worship. In other words, he supported your choices about which places of worship you could attend and how you could pray, but he excluded openly practicing your faith in other ways. He could not have been more wrong.
Caring for people as they are and as they see themselves is moral. Not believing that God made them as they are is not moral, though that depends on a belief in a God who demands worship and is never seen. That division is what makes cults what they are. Last long enough and every cult has a chance at becoming a recognized religion.
That ‘Crazy Like A Fox’ Excuse
Trump insults Pope Leo then posts an A I picture portraying himself as a Christ-like healer.
So MAGA apologists respond again by declaring that Trump is only ‘acting’ crazy to trigger stupid liberals.
In reality, Trump is ‘crazy like a fox’. And by feigning insanity, Trump keeps everyone off-balance. Which gives him a big edge!
This excuse has been made on Trump’s behalf so many times it’s gone beyond ridiculous. Would anyone make excuses like that for a friend or family member who is chronicly obnoxious?
People making excuses like that come across as blithering idiots. Especially if their friend keeps talking crazy sh!t. The constant denial becomes a form of insanity. An unwillingness to accept the very obvious.
The ‘crazy like a fox’ excuse is usually made with a broad sneaky grin while tapping one’s temple to indicate a genius. But without those visuals, the excuse never quite works
THE CHIN
Yet more evidence that Democrats have become fundamentally evil.
Is the nuns’ hospice a private or public accommodation? Most places if not all are public because the utilizes all of it except personal private property as a domicile. The civil rights act is in play. What is Hochul’s argument? Presumably it’s the CRA?
As to the exercise of religion, religion is exercised 24/7 by the religious when they’re alone or in public and expressly affects the chosen afterlife. In fact it’s concern is the afterlife. Any law passed by the state that impacts a religious afterlife is specifically null. Do these NY laws impact a religious person negatively. Yes. Case is over. The impact is the only question. The ER doctors and mifepristone were impacted and face job loss. Kagan was wrong IMO, Young.
^^ I’m biased. I don’t wear a hijab and am ultimately grateful that I won’t be going to the same h€ll as Moslems. In fact I’m so biased, I’m grateful I won’t have the same afterlife.
Maybe I’m such a heathen I like the wind in my hair and actual swimming suits too much. I like free choice.
Be careful of what you want or wish.
And He came upon a man who lived among the tombs and cried out night and day and cut himself with stones and no chain was strong enough to hold him.
Modern man is hysterical. Demons are at work around us 24/7, and we still can’t see their deeds, like Joe DeAngelo and Little Teddy Bundy and the Night Stalker.
Confirmation Trump Is Nuts!
President Donald Trump’s posting of a rendering that appeared to depict him as Jesus drew rare criticism from the religious right, prompting calls for him to take down the post and allegations of blasphemy.
Shortly after posting a screed against Pope Leo XIV on Sunday night as he returned to Washington from Florida, Trump shared an image that appeared to be AI-generated in the style of a painting, depicting him in a long white robe. In one hand was an orb glowing with light; Trump’s other hand rested on the forehead of a man in what resembled a hospital bed — light beaming from the man’s head as Trump appeared to pray for his healing. Patriotic symbols including an eagle, fireworks and the Statue of Liberty filled the frame.
“I don’t know if the President thought he was being funny or if he is under the influence of some substance or what possible explanation he could have for this OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy,” wrote Megan Basham, a prominent conservative Protestant Christian writer and commentator. “But he needs to take this down immediately and ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/04/13/trump-jesus-religious-conservatives/
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For far too long, Republicans and rightwing media have enabled Trump to say and post any crazy thought that comes to him. The generation that fought WWII would be aghast at knowing a lunatic occupies the White House. U.S. prestige keeps taking hit after hit. This trajectory is NOT sustainable!
All The Signs Are There:
Trump’s Obvious Instability
In his second term, Mr. Trump seems even less restrained and more incoherent at times. He uses more profanity, speaks longer and regularly makes comments rooted in fantasy rather than fact. He keeps saying that his father was born in Germany when in fact he was born in the Bronx. He repeats an invented story about his uncle, an M.I.T. professor, telling him about teaching the terrorist known as the Unabomber.
He wanders off into odd tangents — an eight-minute ramble at a Christmas reception about poisonous snakes in Peru, a long digression during a cabinet meeting about Sharpie pens, an interruption of an Iran war update to praise the White House drapes. He has confused Greenland with Iceland and more than once boasted of ending a fictional war between Cambodia and Azerbaijan, two countries separated by nearly 4,000 miles. (He evidently means Armenia and Azerbaijan).
Even before lashing out at Pope Leo XIV on Sunday night, and then posting an image of himself as a Jesus-like figure before deleting it, Mr. Trump had shocked many with his outbursts at critics. He accuses those who anger him of sedition, a crime punishable by death. He claimed bizarrely that the Hollywood director Rob Reiner, who was allegedly stabbed to death by his son, was killed “due to the anger he caused” by opposing Mr. Trump. When Robert S. Mueller III, the former F.B.I. director and special counsel, died, Mr. Trump said, “Good, I’m glad he’s dead.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/us/politics/trump-mental-fitness-25th-amendment.html
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How strange that Turley has never written about Trump’s mental problems. One would think a Professor of Constitutional Law would take a deep interest in the ramifications of an unstable president. Yet Turley feels that California’s liberal policies are a far more urgent issue.
He has suckered you, too. I heard some Big Media women crucifying him today because he watched a fight at an arena while battles rage. He does so intentionally to show Iran that he isn’t sitting in the white-house worrying all day because Iran is being destroyed. They want him to be terrified of their threats and the wages of war. He’s street smart and woke cannot tolerate how independent of their opinions of him he really is. Got to love it. Two birds with just one Trump.
I guess I’ve been suckered by Trump’s orange make-up and yellow hair. That looks nuts to me. But maybe it’s part of his mad man act.
He should be impeached for that. Pretending to be a clown while serving as the Commander-in-Chief is treasonable.
Watch Sleuth. It is the best movie no one has seen. It’ll rock ya. Mike Caine and Sir Laurence Olivier.
The 1972 film adaptation of Sleuth is widely regarded as a masterful psychological thriller and a tour-de-force of acting, often cited as a hidden gem despite receiving 4 Academy Award nominations
Saw it all those years ago, will have to watch again.
Trump is also ignoring the rest of Americans. He’s gotten gas prices and fertilizer prices to go up which will shortly drive food prices up. But sure, an evening watching people beat the daylights out of each other, something that appeals to the lowest class of human being, and shows no care for Americans.
He’s a character. He is having a blast. Drives those who hate him bonkers. Got to love it. He is a ham. He toys with the press. They misunderstand him totally. They cannot get it thru their enormous fat heads that they can’t control him.
Or maybe Trump believes the presidency is just another reality show. And that ‘is’ his reality.
Knock off the jealousy. I bet you have some worthwhile qualities.
Same as Hitler.
WINNING!
“WE DON’T DESERVE HIM!”
THANK YOU, LORD!
Having a dementia patient in the white house wasn’t sustainable but everyone pretended it was. No one yelled Blasphemy when Obama was anointed the Chosen. They were selling t shirts and posters with Obama represented as Jesus. my coworker had a whole calendar of it. The last supper at the Paris Olympics portrayed Jesus and the apostles as LGBTqrstuvw freaks. No cries of Blasphemy then! Trump does something and suddenly the left cares about Christianity. Funny how that happens right? let go of your pearls Mabel, no one takes you seriously anymore.
Axelrod called him “Chocolate Jesus.”
IT DOES MY HEART GOOD TO SEE WOKE freak out over Trump’s playfulness with Christian implications. Normally, they are the ones doing everything they can to denounce Christ and His followers.
It’s the Olympics, a Greek based competition that predates Christ and was portraying the Greek gods. Not everything is about ignorant people pretending to be Christians.
“They” were selling t-shirt? Did Obama have a merchandise site for them? Did Obama make a post like that?
Know how to make God laugh?
Tell Him your plans
“Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”
“Follow him through the city and kill, without showing pity or compassion. Slaughter the old men, the young men and women, the mothers and children…”
“Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him.”
Little Johnny approaches his mom and dad:
“What are our values?”, asks the boy.
“We hate people” answers the mother.
The dad follows up with, “We hate gays, Jews, lesbians, trans, non-Whites, and immigrants.”
“Why?” inquirers Johnny?
“Because God hates them” answered both.
“But that is not in the Bible” respond Johnny.
The dad responds with a swift removal of his belt and gives Johnny five lashings.
“Are you a gay or a real man!!!” yells the dad.
And from that point on Johnny hates as well.
so what’s your point – not about hate for anyone
More psychobabble from Anon!! Anon needs help.
Shocking law. Clearly unconstitutional. And, unnecessarily intrusive. Only rationale is to force their ideology on everyone and flex their power.
The Democrats are pathetic to the point of being malevolent. There are some nasty fights in our future that will arise from their intolerance.
you mean like the LAST time Democrat started a CIVIL WAR?
If Democrats take power in Washington, unlike Republicans who block Trump, they will implement as much of their demented policy as quickly as they possibly can. Look at Virginia’s recent activities as an example. The results will be horrendous.
A question: why would they take actions that would incense and alienate half the nation unless they thought they could come out on top? What is their plan? For us to sleepwalk, forget, not believe our own eyes?
The Republicans have not blocked Trump on anything noteworthy.
Wealthy people who were slave owners started the American Civil War. Trump would be on their side as they were rich. It’s the only side Trump is ever on.
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
– Declaration of Independence, 1776
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The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court. It began with “An Act to incorporate the subscribers to the Bank of the United States” of 1791, which enjoys absolutely no legal basis in the Constitution, is flagrantly unconstitutional, and must have been struck down forthwith, and it hasn’t stopped yet. It is only “necessary and proper” “for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers” not powers arbitrarily fabricated out of whole cloth. The “failure” continued with multiple constitutional abominations, including, but not limited to, the Supreme Court decision of 1869, which decided that secession was prohibited because secession is not prohibited; the preposterous Federal Reserve Act, which enjoys the same absence of constitutional legal basis; and the embarrassingly corrupt Roe v. Wade, which was struck down by the same Supreme Court 50 years subsequent. Impeachment and conviction are the sole remedies against this rogue branch provided by the Framers in the Constitution, but those have proven to be impossible. America is compelled to accept the abject corruption of this branch. The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court.
The suit is against the State of New York, not the federal gov.
If the State rules against the nuns it will more than likely go to federal court on civil rights violations. Maybe even the Supreme Court.That will set a national precedent so state court rulings in these cases are important
Ending the communist foreign conquest of America is a higher priority.
NY has copious laws protecting all facets of the transgender group as gender identity full recognition and rights of freedom that may impose upon other groups. Religious exceptions will probably hold for now and laws function as a revealed discrimination within religions.
Caring for dying people without charge providing food, shelter, beds, heat, other in the dying hours is a good deed. Is NY free of good deeds under law?
Uh oh – but isn’t Pope Leo and his predecessors big fans of the ‘alternative communities’ and all that comes with that lifestyle? Further, isn’t it fair that religious orders should take the same dictatorial edicts that come from Comrade Hochul that all NY state citizens have to endure no matter how outrageous or communist? Can’t Leo just tell his Nuns to ignore the basics of Christianity like he preaches to the rest of the flock?
He is becoming an embarrassment and he had to be an “American”.
I’m waiting for a sect of some religion to discriminate by race, nation of origin, skin color to really put free exercise to a test.
The picture of Sally Fields as the flying nun may date some commenters and goes back to what the US once was when little girls could watch the funny nun on TV and think they, too, might enjoy such a vocation. They looked forward to the wind catching her bonnet and wafting her upward per episode, magic. 😂
The Vatican City has revealed itself as a political system. It has all its citizens challenging a foreign nation. Just like Islam. Does the pope have an agreement with the ayotollah to split the world? Minarets around the Vatican with all that heathen art destroyed. Let’s give a shout out to the Benedictines. Champagne is awful good, Dom Perignon. ☺.
What a lousy pope. 😂
No, the Nuns have their own character which was around before the dopey pope.
How many voters, US, will vote as the pope says because —-?
It’s part of the reason the US had a difficult time accepting the RCs. They interfere with state business with an appeal of authority and without a rational, reasonable, logical argument.
Gay is bad and shall be punished until they’ve changed? Death sentence? It is as g-d wills? Self fulfilling prophecy?
Your president could be a puppet of Vatican City. All that is asked by the state is a logical argument.
It’s a good case. Wait until it gets to the difficult cases. The nuns think their afterlife will be in God’s world where there is no crime, no death, no illness? God has many worlds and those do exist. They’re hoping for a better reincarnation in their next life by good works. Perhaps their next life will be moslem because they want to serve, servitude? They enjoy habits and cloisters? How fitting.
In this case no one can have an opinion against them? NY law does have an opinion?
Shadow docket
Now comes the examination of what establishment and exercise mean, 1A.
Pope Francis and pope Leo may be behind the mass migration in the western hemisphere. Islam and RC are mass religions with a totalitarian authority in the form of a human. These are human political systems. It’s perhaps the reason the Anglican church became the British religion.
There really isn’t a logical argument for some of the new laws in the United States. Dying women would be horrified to share rooms and baths with males. Many have known only their husband and the humiliation goes too far.
I’d strike NY law on the ground of humiliation and dignity as emotions felt by people naturally. The nuns most likely don’t have time to recall they them. Perhaps the pope can spring for doors for the 1 trans or a rich parishioner to accommodate the law having nothing to do with God. I’m sure God doesn’t care if you’re nude walking down the street, perhaps annoyed.
Oh, I do hope hochul sticks to her guns on this right down to election day. There are many faithful Catholics in NY State who like their church and their nuns far better than they like the crew in Albany. Hochul’s only chance is to cling to the parasites who voted for her last time.
Jake and Elwood: “Send in The Penguin !”
The State needs to realize who it actually works for. Since the nuns take no money from the state or regulated insurance companies, where is the State’s constitutional authority here? I’m with the nuns. Sadly if an organization complying with the mandates kicked out a patient who refused to share a room or bathroom with someone of the opposite sex, Hochul would be fine with it.
Dear Mr. Turley, I thought we had gone through something like this before with the Little Sisters of the Poor. The Democrats only like allegiance to their Party and their party only. As many have stated before, if they don’t like the USA, then there is the door. And don’t let the door hit you in the backside as you leave!
Iranian (IRG) will respond to US war ships with flying nun drones. Glory be.
I have not made too many requests. You have blocked nearly every one of them