Disability Coalition Sues New York Over Medical Aid in Dying Act, Citing ADA, ACA, Rehabilitation Act, and Constitution

The End Assisted Suicide coalition — not a generic coalition of disability rights groups — filed a 79-page complaint on June 11, 2026, in Brooklyn federal court. The suit squarely challenges New York's Medical Aid in Dying Act, which is set to take effect later this year. The complaint does not rest solely on the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, as some initial reports suggested. According to the publicly filed complaint (Case 1:26-cv-03492), the plaintiffs also explicitly invoke the Affordable Care Act and the U.S. Constitution as additional legal grounds, arguing the law's structure fails to protect patients with life-threatening disabilities from coercion, misdiagnosis, and untreated depression leading to premature death.

This litigation represents a significant civil-rights challenge to a state law that disability advocates argue creates a two-track health system — one where able-bodied patients receive palliative care and disabled patients are offered lethal medication. The End Assisted Suicide coalition is not a fringe group; it includes organizations that have long fought for disability protections under federal law. The lawsuit's breadth — citing four federal statutes plus constitutional claims — underscores the coalition's argument that assisted suicide laws, without robust safeguards, violate the fundamental equal-protection principle that disabled lives are entitled to the same level of care and protection as any others. For civil-rights litigators, this case tests whether state medical-aid-in-dying laws can survive scrutiny under the same federal statutes that prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities in healthcare and public programs.