Tag: new york

Court Shields Catholic Nuns, Healthcare Ministries from New York Assisted Suicide Law

A district court on Thursday blocked New York from enforcing its assisted suicide law against four orders of Catholic nuns and several Catholic healthcare ministries as their religious liberty lawsuit continues. 

The temporary agreement, which New York agreed to, will shield the Catholic nuns and ministries from being forced to take any part in assisted suicides when the law legalizing the practice goes into effect on Wednesday, attorneys with Becket Fund for Religious Liberty announced. The agreement will be in effect while the court considers their request for a preliminary injunction. 

“Forcing Catholic nuns to participate in suicide—and robbing New Yorkers of the choice to receive faithful, life-affirming care—is both unlawful and unjust,” said Mark Rienzi, president of Becket and lead attorney for the healthcare ministries. “This agreement protects the sisters and those they care for while we fight to end New York’s suicide mandate for good.”

The groups — including the Carmelite Sisters, the Dominican Sisters, the Benedictine Sisters, the Little Sisters, Bishop John Barres of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, and Catholic Health — are suing over part of the law that requires them to provide referrals to patients who are interested in assisted suicide. While the 2026 law contains a religious liberty exception, it requires objecting parties to send interested patients to providers who will enable the suicide to occur, thus still mandating some form of facilitation. 

The complaint asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York to block the law before it takes effect on August 5. The lawsuit alleges that if the law goes into effect, healthcare providers who refuse to take part in counseling and referrals for assisted suicides will face significant fines, professional sanctions, and even criminal penalties.

The lawsuit accuses New York of violating core constitutional protections for religious freedom and freedom of speech by compelling Catholic nuns and ministries to either violate their faith or risk state punishment.

“There is a tendency in our society to treat the elderly as if they are a burden,” Mother Alice Marie Monica of the Little Sisters of the Poor said in a statement. “This temporary protection allows us to keep showing them that they are wanted, loved, and precious in God’s eyes.”

In February, New York became the 13th state, plus Washington, DC, to legalize assisted suicide. The “Medical Aid in Dying” or MAID bill allows assisted suicide for terminally ill New Yorkers with less than six months to live.

Democrat New York Gov. Kathy Hochul released a statement at the time of the bill’s signing equating assisted suicide with “freedoms” and a “right to bodily autonomy” — a similar argument used by pro-abortion and pro-transgender activists who promote mutilation and the killing of unborn babies.

The groups — including the Carmelite Sisters, the Dominican Sisters, the Benedictine Sisters, the Little Sisters, Bishop John Barres of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, and Catholic Health — are suing over part of the law that requires them to provide referrals to patients who are interested in assisted suicide. While the 2026 law contains a religious liberty exception, it requires objecting parties to send interested patients to providers who will enable the suicide to occur, thus still mandating some form of facilitation. 

The complaint asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York to block the law before it takes effect on August 5. The lawsuit alleges that if the law goes into effect, healthcare providers who refuse to take part in counseling and referrals for assisted suicides will face significant fines, professional sanctions, and even criminal penalties.

The lawsuit accuses New York of violating core constitutional protections for religious freedom and freedom of speech by compelling Catholic nuns and ministries to either violate their faith or risk state punishment.

“There is a tendency in our society to treat the elderly as if they are a burden,” Mother Alice Marie Monica of the Little Sisters of the Poor said in a statement. “This temporary protection allows us to keep showing them that they are wanted, loved, and precious in God’s eyes.”

In February, New York became the 13th state, plus Washington, DC, to legalize assisted suicide. The “Medical Aid in Dying” or MAID bill allows assisted suicide for terminally ill New Yorkers with less than six months to live.

Democrat New York Gov. Kathy Hochul released a statement at the time of the bill’s signing equating assisted suicide with “freedoms” and a “right to bodily autonomy” — a similar argument used by pro-abortion and pro-transgender activists who promote mutilation and the killing of unborn babies.

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Mamdani admin. denies that shoppers will need state photo ID or face mandatory door checks to buy food at upcoming city-run grocery stores

A national political firestorm erupted on Monday following viral social media claims that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani would require shoppers to present identification to purchase food at proposed municipal grocery stores, prompting sharp criticism from conservative leaders, left-wing New Yorkers and a subsequent clarification from City Hall.

The controversy stems from comments made during a press conference addressing the Mamdani (D-N.Y.) administration’s new flagship “food affordability program.” Last week, Mamdani announced a $70 million initiative to open five city-owned, publicly subsidized grocery stores — one in each borough — offering a 30% discount on essential kitchen staples like meat, produce, and pantry goods.

During the press conference, which transpired in late July, a reporter asked the mayor, “How are you going to keep people from taking advantage of that deal, basically? And is there going to be a limit on the number of items that someone can take that are discounted at that level from that essential basket?”

“So our RFP (Request for Proposal) makes very clear this is a program for New Yorkers to be able to put food on the table, not a program for people to be able to make a quick buck through reselling,” Mamdani responded.

Jeanny Pak, the CFO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, then floated the idea of a residency verification mechanism, mentioning a potential “library card-esque thing” or looking into state IDs to manage buyer eligibility and target local New Yorkers.

However, following the social media buzz, Mamdani’s office later issued a statement denying that shoppers will need to present a state photo ID or undergo door checks to enter or buy food at the proposed city-owned grocery stores.

Regarding the current official status, the Mamdani administration has not formally enacted a mandatory ID policy. They stated they are “still exploring options” to verify local residence, but no final decision has been made ahead of the planned 2027 opening in the Bronx, New York officials emphasized.

Nonetheless, prior to the clarification, video clips of the exchange circulated rapidly across political circles online, sparking immediate accusations of political hypocrisy. Prominent Republican figures seized on the clip to draw comparisons between food access policies and federal election laws.

Billionaire Elon Musk posted to X calling the situation ironic, while Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) labeled it hypocritical, arguing that advocating for residency verification at city grocery stores while opposing mandatory voter ID bills was inconsistent.

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Judge Blocks New York’s Law Prohibiting Federal Officers From Wearing Masks

A federal judge on Monday blocked New York’s law prohibiting federal officers from wearing face masks.

ICE agents and other federal officers wear masks to conceal their identities because of the increased attacks from the violent left.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, DHS law enforcement has experienced more than 180 vehicle attacks since Trump took office.

ICE officers are being doxxed and attacked.

“ICE officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults, a 3,200% increase in vehicle attacks, and an 8,000% increase in death threats,” ERO Miami Field Office Director Matthew Elliston said last month.

US District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino, an Obama appointee, said New York does not have the authority to regulate federal law enforcement activity.

New York’s corrupt Democrat Attorney General Letitia James said she is “reviewing all legal options.”

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SURPRISE! Zohran Mamdani’s Universal ‘Free’ Childcare Program Projected to Cost Billions More Than Planned

Zohran Mamdani’s universal and ‘free’ childcare program in New York City is now being projected to cost billions more than originally planned.

Who could have predicted such a thing?

Only a leftist could devise a government-run program that costs billions of tax dollars and have the nerve to call it free. It’s a concept that is completely lost on the media.

In this case, no one should be surprised that the price tag keeps going up.

The New York Post reports:

Mamdani’s universal childcare plan will cost taxpayers billions more than planned as costs balloon: report

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s universal childcare plan will cost 50% more than he advertised, according to a new study.

The proposed program is estimated to cost a whopping $9 billion annually, approximately with an average cost per child roughly $27,000, according to the report from the Center for New York City Affairs, a nonpartisan research organization affiliated with the New School.

“An estimated $8.7 to $9.3 billion would be needed annually to fund universal child care in New York City,” the report, which was released on Monday, states.

That’s $3 billion more than the mayor previously said his ambitious universal free childcare program would cost.

Hizzoner promised on the campaign trail that his plan to make childcare free for children from 6 weeks old to five years old regardless of family income would cost about $6 billion per year and be paid for by taxing the state’s wealthiest earners.

The $3 billion gap identified in the study was largely tied to teacher pay, with the Center for NYC Affairs estimating some 23,000 new childcare workers will need to be hired, mainly for infants and children under three years old.

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Scamdani and the Truth About City-Owned Grocery Stores

Some of my earliest memories are from a grocery store.

My mother, and later her sister, worked at a locally owned Key Market running the deli department. Baked goods, hot meals, sliced meats and fresh salads, and the best donuts you ever tasted made from scratch every day — it was a kid’s paradise. She would sometimes take me to work on Saturdays, and I’d help, doing everything but slicing the meat (age-restricted because it’s dangerous). It was fun for me, and I learned things I would not have learned watching cartoons.

Later, just before I married and became a military wife, I worked at my local Kroger regional office supporting loyalty card and marketing issues for, gosh, I guess it was about 200 stores. I learned a lot about the grocery business.

All this is to say: I know the difference between grocery economics and political theater.

Scamdani’s ever-evolving store plans

Zohran Mamdani, New York’s newest Hizzoner, ran largely on a pledge to create city-owned grocery stores, and today he’s working to fulfill that promise. Sort of. The idea was to decrease prices for consumers by removing the “gouging” profit model.

Some of his campaign promises included:

  • “Grocery prices are out of control. The cost of eggs and milk has skyrocketed. Some stores are even using dynamic pricing, jacking up the cost over the course of the day depending on what they can get away with. It doesn’t need to be this way. I’m Zohran Mamdani, and as mayor, I will create a network of city-owned grocery stores. It’s like a public option for produce. We will redirect city funds from corporate supermarkets to city-owned grocery stores, whose mission is lower prices, not price gouging.”
  • “I’m Zohran Mamdani, and as mayor, I will create a network of city-owned grocery stores. It’s like a public option for produce.”
  • “We will redirect city funds from corporate supermarkets to city-owned grocery stores, whose mission is lower prices, not price gouging.” (This one is especially rich, as you’ll see.)
  • “Last month, we announced that we would fulfill a campaign promise: that we would lower prices by creating a network of city-owned grocery stores, one in each borough. In these stores, prices will be cheaper.”

Sounds great. So last month, he announced the reality: a limited core basket including produce, meat, seafood, milk, bread, yogurt, and a few other things to be priced 30% below “typical retail,” whatever that really means, in city-owned and subsidized stores run by private for-profit operators. Operators are entitled to price everything outside the core basket at whatever they like. The discounted “basket” will be subsidized by the city. The city covers capital, rent, and property tax. And users, as announced today, will be required to prove residency with a “library card” style identification.

As Darth Vader said, the deal has been altered. Pray he does not alter it further.

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Fuming Mamdani blocked from speaking at fallen NYC soldier’s funeral despite writing speech: ‘He was never called’

They gave him the Zo-ld shoulder.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani was snubbed from eulogizing Army Sgt. Angel Sarah Rampersad at the fallen soldier’s Queens funeral Friday — and the embarrassing scene unfolded in real time as he fumed while waiting in vain to give his speech, sources revealed.

Mamdani, who was relegated to the fourth row in the Ozone Park church, appeared to be reviewing his planned remarks on an iPad while Gov. Kathy Hochul and other dignitaries, including Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, were called to speak, a source in attendance said.

“They kept calling names and then he was never called,” the source said.

“Then he looked over at his staff, frustrated and seemed angry that he didn’t speak. When he realized his name wasn’t being called, he looked at his staff angrily and then eventually put his tablet away.”

City Hall ignored multiple requests for comment over the humiliating turn of events.

The diss came as Mamdani — an avowed democratic socialist who’s harshly critical of Israel and the US war against Iran — remains a divisive political figure both within New York City and across the nation.

Another source involved with the funeral’s planning said Rampersad’s family is pro-President Trump and didn’t want Mamdani to speak.

Yet another insider confirmed that Mamdani’s outspoken lefty politics ultimately led him to lose his customary mayoral role as a speaker during a hometown soldier’s funeral.

“The family is more conservative and wanted to limit any political distractions,” the insider said.

Rampersad, 28, was among three US soldiers killed July 17 during an Iranian missile attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. Rampersad grew up in an Ozone Park family, graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and joined the Army, following in the footsteps of her uncle.

It’s unclear whether the young mayor visited Rampersad’s kin in the days following her death as is customary for Big Apple leaders to do. Nothing about a visit prior to Friday’s funeral appeared on his official public schedule or his indefatigable social media accounts.

Hizzoner did, however, fill his past week “siteseeing” in double-decker bus as part of a housing press stunt and sat for a few interviews with national publications in an attempt to further raise his public profile.

Mamdani — who in recent days has been slammed for ignoring everyday New Yorker’s problems, including the seven residents who’ve died from Legionnaire’s disease — also found time to tout his far-off city-run grocery stores, even fundraising off the efforts.

In lieu of actually speaking at Rampersad’s funeral, Mamdani’s press team blasted out his planned speech, identifying it as “remarks as prepared.”

“It is often said that our fallen ‘gave their tomorrows for our today,’” Mamdani planned to say. “Sergeant Rampersad had tomorrows waiting for her: birthdays, ordinary mornings, evenings spent with her loved ones. But she gave every one of them up so that we could have ours — so that we could stand here today, safe and protected.”

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NYPD Reports Hate Crimes Rise Under Mamdani-More Than Half Committed Against Jews

While New York City Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch recently bragged about a drop in crime in the Big Apple in a press release, the statement buried a rise in hate crimes that are overwhelmingly committed against the city’s Jewish community under radical NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

While Jewish New Yorkers make up only 10% of the city’s population, more than half of the confirmed hate crimes were anti-Jewish with hate crimes against Jewish New Yorkers increasing by 8.5% so far this year.

The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force (HCTF) investigates allegations of hate crimes and bias-motivated incidents. After an incident is flagged as a possible hate crime, the HCTF investigates and determines, in consultation with the NYPD Legal Bureau, whether it constitutes a hate crime under New York State law. If an incident is deemed a hate crime under the law, it will be categorized as a confirmed hate crime. The NYPD provides data on confirmed hate crimes along with all reported hate crimes regardless of whether they are ultimately confirmed as hate crimes by the HCTF. The disclosure of both sets of numbers enhances transparency and reflects best practices in connection with hate crime reporting.

Year to date, the number of confirmed hate crimes increased 9.4% (360 vs. 329), with 31 more confirmed hate crime incidents compared to last year. In July, there were 33 confirmed hate crimes and 50 incidents reported as hate crimes. More than half of the confirmed hate crimes for the first seven months of the year, or 56.9%, were anti-Jewish hate crimes, despite Jewish New Yorkers making up only 10% of the city’s population. During the first seven months of the year, anti-Jewish hate crimes increased 8.5% (205 vs. 189).

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Zohran Mamdani Won’t Let You Buy His Food Without Government ID

If you want to purchase food from one of communist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s government-run supermarkets, you must… present some form of ID.

And not just any ID… government ID.

But-but-but how will married women eat?

“So, our RFP [Request for Proposals] makes very clear that this is a program for New Yorkers to be able to put food on the table, not a program for people to be able to make a quick buck through reselling,” explains Mamdani. “I’m going [to] pass it over to our EDC head, Jeanny Pak, to add some additional details.”

Pak is the Interim President & CEO of NYC Economic Development Corporation.

“Yes, if you look at our RFP for the operator, we are looking to make sure that we target New Yorkers, whether it be [through] a sort of a library card-esque [system], and also, we manage who’s buying and that it’s focused on everyday New Yorkers,” Pak said. “So, we are mindful of that, and we’re going to make sure that we have all the things in place to ensure that that does not happen.”

Libraries are run by the government; therefore, “library-esque” identification is by definition government identification.

And this is what always happens when leftism meets reality.

Mamdani wants government to take over the means of production, which is the very definition of communism. He’s starting with food because, hey, who doesn’t support cheap food? Food is necessary to life. No one wants anyone to go hungry. It’s a pretty smart first move on his part. Ah, but what about reality…? Such as…

The reality of how this will undercut privately-owned grocery stores. Yeah, well, that’s the plan, dumbass. If people can buy groceries 30 percent cheaper from the government, they are going to buy groceries 30 percent cheaper from the government, and this will (by design) decimate privately-owned grocery stores that operate on profit margins below five percent.

These privately-owned stores will go out of business. Then Mamdani will replace them with more government-run stores, which will push even more privately-owned stores out of business, which means even more government-run stores, and so on and so on and so on, until the government is in charge of feeding the people and if the people defy the government, those people don’t eat.

Then there’s the reality brought up by the reporter’s question, which is what to do about people who will take advantage of a system so easily taken advantage of by purchasing groceries at 30 percent below retail, turning around, and reselling those items?

See, that could ruin Mamdani’s Communist plot, so suddenly a government ID is necessary to avoid fraud, to avoid people taking advantage.

Sound familiar?

Democrats like Mamdani tell us they oppose voter ID because “voting is a human right.” But-but-but isn’t eating even more of a human right?

They tell us government ID is too difficult for some people to obtain, especially poor people. But-but-but don’t the poor need to eat even more than they need to vote?

They tell us voter ID is racist. But-but-but by that standard, Mamdani is starving black people. They tell us married women will be denied government ID. But-but-but… You get the point.

Mamdani proves here that he knows that not requiring an ID invites fraud, and like all Democrats, he wants to invite voter fraud because Democrats benefit from voter fraud.

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In Mamdani’s New York, It’s 1933 All Over Again

New York City’s Marxist Muslim Mayor Zohran Mamdani acted quickly, once he moved into Gracie Mansion, to demonstrate that his venomous anti-Israel campaign rhetoric was not just an appeal to the Democrat Party’s growing and aggressive hard-left faction. On his very first day in office, he revoked the city’s International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance framework for combating antisemitism.

It’s easy to see why Mamdani would not have wanted to be committed to combating antisemitism: he was busy stirring it up. On July 21, Mamdani falsely accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being a war criminal and carrying out a genocide of “Palestinians.” Two days later, a Muslim screaming “Allahu akbar” stabbed an identifiably Jewish man who was leaving Jewish services.

Nor was that an isolated incident. The Jerusalem Post reported Thursday that “Mamdani’s own police commissioner reported hate crimes up nearly 12% citywide, with 55% targeting Jews, who represent about 10% of the city’s population.”

More recently, despite being mayor of the city with the second-largest Jewish population in the world, he has conspicuously left all Jewish lawyers off the city’s 18-member Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. Jews comprise fully half of the city’s lawyers, but Mamdani didn’t see fit to appoint even one Jewish lawyer to the body that vets and recommends candidates for positions on the city’s courts.

The systematic ignoring of the city’s Jewish lawyers will do nothing but contribute to their sidelining within their own profession. Algemeiner reported Tuesday that “a coalition of Jewish legal organizations condemned the appointments, arguing that the omission excludes one of New York’s largest religious and ethnic communities from an influential body responsible for shaping the city’s judiciary.”

The coalition also noted that Mamdani’s snubbing of the Jewish lawyers was just one aspect of “‘a troubling pattern’ that has left many Jewish New Yorkers feeling increasingly marginalized.” That pattern includes not only Mamdani’s rejection of “the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism,” but also “the omission of Jewish neighborhoods from an administration map highlighting immigrant enclaves.”

What’s next? Maybe organized boycotts of Jewish-owned businesses. The BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement announced a week after Mamdani took office that it welcomed Mamdani’s “revocation of the anti-BDS Executive Order issued last month by the previous mayor.” The executive order that Mamdani revoked “prevented any mayoral agencies or appointees from doing business with vendors and organizations complying with international law by holding genocidal Israel accountable.” That is, the city was prevented from doing business with entities that boycotted Israel, but no longer.

There are precedents. On April 1, 1933, Adolf Hitler’s newly-minted National Socialist dictatorship in Germany ordered a one-day boycott of Jewish-owned businesses. Six days later, the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Service excluded Jews from positions as university professors and government officials. There quickly followed laws that barred Jews from serving as physicians and teachers, as well as, in a foreshadowing of Mamdani’s choices for the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary, lawyers and judges.

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New York Legalizes Assisted Suicide as ‘Medical Aid in Dying’ Law Takes Effect This Week

New York will become the latest state to allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to patients when its Medical Aid in Dying Act takes effect on Wednesday, allowing eligible adults to request and administer drugs to assist them in committing suicide.

Governor Kathy Hochul signed the legislation into law on February 6, following years of debate, making New York the 14th U.S. jurisdiction to permit the practice.

Under the statute, a mentally capable adult resident of New York who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness expected to result in death within six months may obtain a prescription for life-ending medication after meeting a series of procedural requirements.

To qualify, the patient must be at least 18 years old, a New York resident, and confirmed by both an attending physician and a consulting physician to have an incurable and irreversible condition that will produce death within six months.

Under the law, the individual must demonstrate decision-making capacity and make a voluntary, informed request free of coercion.

The process requires an oral request that is audio or video recorded and permanently stored in the medical record, followed by a signed written request witnessed by two people who cannot benefit financially from the patient’s death.

A mandatory evaluation by a psychologist or psychiatrist is required to confirm capacity, and a five-day waiting period applies between the writing and filling of the prescription unless the attending physician determines the patient is likely to die sooner.

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