Here's the complaint, filed in the Southern District of New York (so federal court, not NY state court)
https://catholicbenefitsassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/01-2026-04-06-Verified-Complaint-and-Exhibits-A-C.pdf
According to the complaint
"The statute enumerates a list of eight actions constituting unlawful discrimination. It is discrimination for an LTCF [long term care facility] or its staff to:
a. “deny admission to a long-term care facility, transfer or refuse to transfer a resident within a facility or to another facility, or discharge or evict a resident from a facility”;
b. “deny a request by residents to share a room”;
c. “where rooms are assigned by gender, assigning, reassigning or refusing to assign a room to a transgender resident other than in accordance with the transgender resident’s gender identity, unless at the transgender resident’s request”;
d. “prohibit a resident from using, or harass a resident who seeks to use or does use, a restroom available to other persons of the same gender identity, regardless of whether the resident has taken or is taking hormones, has had transition-related surgery, or is making a gender transition or appears to be gender-nonconforming”;
e. “willfully and repeatedly fail to use a resident’s preferred name or pronouns after being clearly informed of the preferred name or pronouns, even if the resident is not present”;
f. “deny a resident the right to wear or be dressed in clothing, accessories, or cosmetics that are permitted for any other resident”;
g. “restrict a resident’s right to associate with other residents or with visitors, including the right to consensual expression of intimacy or sexual relations, unless the restriction is uniformly applied to all residents in a nondiscriminatory manner”; or
h. “deny or restrict a resident from accessing appropriate medical or nonmedical care, or provide medical or nonmedical care, that unreasonably demeans the resident’s dignity or causes avoidable discomfort.” Id.
- The Mandate thus prohibits Rosary Hill Home and its staff from assigning patients to rooms by biological sex, prohibits segregating restrooms by biological sex, requires the use of patients’ preferred pronouns even when the patient is not present, and requires allowing patients to cross-dress"
They're suing under 42 USC 1983, which is a law that allows individuals to seek damages, injunctive relief, and attorney's fees when their constitutional rights are violated.
"Across seven independent constitutional grounds, New York’s Mandate demands that the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne abandon their religious beliefs or abandon their 125-year mission of mercy to the dying poor. The Constitution permits neither. This Court should declare the Mandate unconstitutional as applied to Plaintiffs and permanently enjoin its enforcement against Plaintiffs."
WHEREFORE, Plaintiffs respectfully request that this Court:
A. Declare that the Mandate violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution as applied to Plaintiffs, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne and Rosary Hill Home, and their respective agents, employees, and clinical contractors;
B. Preliminarily and permanently enjoin Defendants from enforcing the Mandate against Plaintiffs, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne and Rosary Hill Home, and their respective agents, employees, and clinical contractors;
C. Award Plaintiffs the costs of this action and reasonable attorney’s fees as provided by law, including 42 U.S.C. § 1988(b); and
D. Award such other and further relief as the Court deems equitable and just."
.Paragraphs 59-67 explain how the law's requirements violate their beliefs.